Real Maple Syrup
Maple Syrup is one of the best gifts to give at Christmas. It is compact, decedent and at a great price point. It is perfect for the person who has everything because you can always use more Maple Syrup.
I was shopping at the mall the other day and found some maple syrup for sale. Naturally I took a look at it to see what grade it was and what price they were selling it at. The price tag I found but that was about it.
The laws governing maple syrup production in Canada state that:
12. (1) Every container of maple syrup that is graded under these Regulations shall bear a label marked
(a) with the words “maple syrup” and “sirop d’érable”;
(b) with the grade name on the same panel as the name of the product and in letters of a size set out in Schedule IV;
(c) with the name of the colour class in English and French adjacent to the grade name and in letters of a size set out in Schedule IV;
(d) with a true and correct declaration of net quantity expressed in litres or, where less than one litre, in millilitres;
(e) with
(i) the name and address of the sugar bush establishment, the packing establishment or the maple syrup shipper establishment, or
(ii) the name and address of the first dealer and the registration number of the packing establishment.
Some of these regulations pertain to other section of the act (12.1.c) but I wanted to put these laws up verbatim.
If you see Maple Syrup that does not follow these regulations then you might not be buying the best maple syrup. Let the store clerk know that what they are selling might not be legal, they most likely did not know them selves.
It is great to know exactly what you are getting when you buy Maple Syrup. If you want to find out a bit more about maple syrup regulations in Canada you can always check out the following links:
Syrup as a commodity
I ran into this story about a shortage of maple syrup due to a new cook book by a Nigella Lawson. If you have syrup to sell to the UK now might be the time. It is funny because the recipt only calls for about 80ml of syrup. They are calling this the Nigella effect. I just goes to show that when there is a demand for Maple Syrup it can shoot up at a moments notice.
Read the whole story here: Nigella effect strikes again as sales on maple syrup soar.
I also wanted to find out more about the industry on maple syrup in Ontario and Canada. I found the Statistics Canada commodity number which is 17022020 but that is about it.
Maybe I will pay the 3 bucks and get the report some day.
