Health Department

[wkies]

I'm a Connecticut producer. Recently the local Health Department has raised some concerns regarding our maple operations. We have not had any inspections and have been operating for two decades. We bottle and sell our syrup. Before I "open the file" I was wondering if anyone has had any experinces with their local Departments of Health.

We are local non-profit organization with a working farm and sugarhouse. Almost no agriculture left in the area anymore so it is not like they have seen this situation before.

Any thoughts will help.

Thanks.

[Haynes Forest Products]

And those concerns are?

[maplecrest]

the state of vt have the "seal of quality". that inspection is a voluntary one. i just had my operation inspected. the big thing they looked for is chemical use, what you use and where you store them. then stainless steel tanks and drums.no clutter in the sugar house. clean floors and operation is what they are looking for. what you can your syrup on, a stainless table, ect. mine is a formica counter top which was ok. clean able and food grade. then a sample or two of syrup you have canned. check density, color and containers. food grade. i was happy with this, you wonder being a food product if everything is ok. this was a good way to find out. i learned alot in a few hours time

[markct]

from what i have understood from talking with other sugarmakers in the state, it seems as long as you arnt reselling syrup, just selling what you make, and you have your name and adress on the bottle your good to go, and this seems to be about what i gather from the maple syrup producers manual the ct associatoin puts out

[maple flats]

In New York we are under the New York state Ag. and Markets. I have only been checked once and the inspector liked what he saw. He called to get some syrup I had made "this year", without saying who he was. We set a time for him to meet me at the sugarhouse to BUY the syrup. While there he informally looked things over, seemingly casually. He did have his car marked and wore a name badge so once there it was no longer sneaky. He looked at the evap., the hood, the canner (did not even look into the evap under the hood nor into the canner. He looked at my jug and bottle storrage and made some small talk. He did comment that my operation looked better than many in terms of organization and sanitation. I am not sure how because after the season I end up with lots of disorganization, especially on the benches. He then paid for a quart of syrup to be tested for lead and any contaminates, test flavor and volumn. If he tested anything else I do not remember. He said I would only be informed if anything failed but i requested a report whatever it was and I did get one about 3-4 months later. He was really not a hard guy at all.

[SeanD]

In Mass, maple syrup gets a special "pass" of sorts. I came across this by accident a few years ago when I tried to sell some jam and syrup at a local farmer's market. They wouldn't let me sell anything b/c I didn't have a food permit from the local board of health. It was my first time and I had no idea what I was doing.

When I went to the board of health for more info I learned that if I want to sell jam, I have to get all kinds of inspections, keep scads of records about my fridge temps, etc., and pay a few hundred bucks for the privilege. HOWEVER, here's the mind blower - the first paragraph of the whole blurb specifically EXCLUDES maple syrup from all of these requirements. I can just sell it at the farmer's market as is. Yahoo!

I had to laugh. If any of you have made jam, you know how simple, precise, measured, and clean everything is about processing jam. But when I'm outside boiling sap over an open fire, who knows what flies into the pan - ash, sticks, leaves, bugs. Obviously, I try to produce a quality product in the end, but it's funny how the state sees a difference between jam and syrup with jam being the worry and syrup getting a pass.

Oh well, I'll take it. If I had to go through all of those rigorous steps with maple syrup, I probably wouldn't still be doing it. So, check with your state health dept. language on maple producing. You are probably in luck and your local BOH may not even realize there's an exception for maple syrup.

Good luck,
Sean

[Haynes Forest Products]

Wisconsin the inspector is the same for the dairy farmer comes in askes alot about the cleaning, chemicals used, bottling temps, storage tanks and how i clean things grabs a bottle and off he go's never failed and all is good. We can sell roadside, wholesale or retail all is good

[markcasper]

Being from Wis.,....I might add that my inspecter just showed up a few weeks ago. He is the same one that does our Grade "A" dairy. I must say that in my opinion the sugar shack gets by with alot more than the milk house. But, we're talking syrup versus milk. Milk is alot more perishable and has the potential of big problems if sanitation is not kept high.

I never remember an inspector asking for a syrup sample, or even purchasing a jar. In Wisconsin, the law requires every producer to be inspected by the Dept. of Ag if they are retailing or wholesaling syrup. This does not include those that only sell syrup from your place of production, your house or farm. So basically if anyone is selling to a bulk buyer and they are not inspected, then they are doing it illegal. I know there are tons of smaller backyarders that sell to bulk buyers and the buyers know full well that they are not inspected. So whats a guy to do? It doesn't affect me if they get caught, at the same time it sometimes seems unfair that I have to pay the $76 per year for inspection services, and the neighbor doesn't. For the most part the inspecters are pretty lienient in maple. They seem to understand that most of us have full time jobs, family, among others and if there is a box or dirty boot left forgotten, they will not harrass you too much.

I have often read "Farming" with a few of the maple specialists and read there rant on cleanliness and they sometimes let it go to there head. Yes...in a perfect world we all would do as they suggest and it would be perfect all of the time. We must remember, this is there education coming through and they have been taught to lecture, not produce the most product, the most quality product, with the cheapest cost and in the shortest time.

[maple flats]

I forgot to mention, in NY the inspection is free to the producer. They just tax us to death on everything else and then "give us a free service".
Dave

[brookledge]

WKIES
The best thing I can recommend is to contact your association. This issue is exactly what an association should be able to help you through. Your association should make sure you are treated the same as any other producer in the state.
As was stated in Mass we don't get inspected however our association has published a manual called "Best Management Practices". And all are encouraged to follow those guidelines. And if you do you would pass an inspection.
Keith

[mapleman3]

When I first started thinking of selling to the public I called the health Dept. they said I was a farm stand and they didnt bother with farm stands. As Brookledge stated follow good practices and keep things clean and you should be fine. always go that step further.