Is that maple syrup you bought actually pure? U of G researchers want to create a tool to find out

Researchers from the University of Guelph are hoping to create new technology to more accurately crack down on maple syrup fraud.

Maple syrup is currently one of the most commonly adulterated foods, which means it is likely to have been diluted, mixed or substituted with another syrup or sweetener.

Maria Corradini, lead investigator of the research team, said they want to create technology that can identify the authentic fluorescent fingerprint of pure maple syrup.

"Maple syrup, as many foods, they have a compounds that are naturally there and glow-in-the dark, which is fluorescence," she said. "So by mapping that glow, we are able to detect and differentiate adulterated maple syrup from the non-adulterated one."

She explained why producers may feel like they want to sell their maple syrup mixed in with other types of syrups or sweeteners.

For other places like Japan that import a lot of maple syrup, it might be good for them.- Cody Snyder, maple syrup producer from Breslau

"Probably if you compare [the price of maple syrup] to corn syrup, someone wants to make more money by selling adulterated maple syrup," she said.

"The whole industry and academia is trying to get a responsibility system in order to track the syrup more effectively."

She said they are also developing technology that would more accurately detect food spoilage and contaminants to reduce the number of outbreaks.

Strict rules in Ontario, Quebec

Cody Snyder works at his parents' maple syrup farm in Breslau called Snyder Acres, which was recently recognized as the 2023 producer of the year for the Elmira Maple Syrup Festival.

He said there are already strict rules in place for maple syrup sold in Ontario to ensure purity, making it mandatory for producers to be upfront with the consumer about the grade, mix, colour and origin of their maple syrup.

But there may be use for the technology on a larger scale.

"For other places like Japan that import a lot of maple syrup, it might be good for them," he said. "So that when they order all this imported maple syrup they can feel rest assured that 'hey this is 100% maple syrup' and it isn't blended or anything mixed in."

Snyder pointed out that a majority of the maple syrup you see being sold on the grocery shelves today is from Quebec, which also is subject to strict rules and regulations. But he said large scale producers tend to mix their product as much as they can while still being able to legally call their product maple syrup — so that syrup is often far inferior to the pure maple syrup you can buy directly from a local farm.

He recalled a time when, as a part of a workshop exercise, they anonymously entered a major Canadian grocery story brand's maple syrup into a contest.

"When we went through the criteria for judging ... it actually failed because it was actually darker than what it should have been," he said. "The sugar content was actually just a hair into what is legally called maple syrup."

He said the maple syrup from that bottle was less than 0.2 per cent away from no longer legally being able to be considered maple syrup.

Snyder added that a better alternative would be to buy maple syrup directly from a farm, particularly if you live in Southwestern Ontario.

"People around here would just be boiling sap into maple syrup. I've never really heard of anything else other than that going into the maple process [in Southwestern Ontario]."