DME contains non-malt sugars - WTF?

Ok - I have read in the Palmer book and other places that it is common that DMEs contain added cain sugar as it is less costly to produce then "real" dried barley malt.

The Plamer book is dated but is this likely true today?

I would have thought that the FDA or other government regulators would have stopped this, if true. Isn't the mislabeling of food packages or food lables or representations about food contents a serious breach?

...makes me want to brew AG.... Yikes!

I haven't heard of "adulteration" of DME as being an issue. I've seen part of a study that suggested it is done to a lot of LMEs.

plus the FDA is concerned about safety, not about you getting 'cheap sugars instead of pricier sugars'.

I'd say its very true. Some brands of DME are known to be low attenuating (excessive unfermentable sugar) compared to others.

But how do you know that it's added sugar that makes some DME attenuate more than others? Why couldn't it be that the grain was mashed at a lower temp when the DME was made?

It seems to me you may want to ask yourself if your brews taste good or not. If they don't, I doubt its because your extracts contain sugars from a source other than malted barley (or wheat). If they do, I'd suggest you do what I do and look the other way.

Extremely unlikely that anything sold as malt extract will be anything except that malt. However, there are malt/sugar mixes sold and labeled as such. These are alternatives for "can + kilo" kits. The result is somewhere in between using sugar and using DME.

Never seemed to have an issue with my supplier. Not anything that I would notice at least. And if you can't notice it, don't sweat it.

munton & fison light DME is all 2 row malted barley nothing else.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f37/smash-extract-173223/

Quote on PG 2 from Briess & M&F

Briess contains carapils (not a bad thing for head retention) M&F 100% pure 2-row pale malt