Maple sap

[Mr. Red Maple]

Here's a question. I have heard that companies are now selling maple sap and calling it maple water. I was wondering what would you have to do to the sap to stabilize it and be able to store it in a fridge. I would assume I could just bring the sap to a boil for a few seconds and that would kill any bacteria. Anyone have any ideas on this?


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[jamesd14]

Would be nice to know, after reading articles on this the maple sap water is supposed to be real good for you with a lot of antioxidants.

[DrTimPerkins]

Here's a question. I have heard that companies are now selling maple sap and calling it maple water. I was wondering what would you have to do to the sap to stabilize it and be able to store it in a fridge. I would assume I could just bring the sap to a boil for a few seconds and that would kill any bacteria. Anyone have any ideas on this?

According to the new IMSI guidelines, boiling affects the chemistry and flavor, so once you do that you couldn't call it maple water according to those guidelines (although they currently have no laws/regulations in this regard). Generally this type of thing is done via flash pasteurization, which uses heat and pressure to kill microbes without affecting the flavor. I believe there is some work ongoing on this at U. Maine (Kathy Hopkins). In general, it isn't as simple or easy as you might think. With syrup, the density is so high that not many things will grow in the syrup after boiling. With sap that is not the case, so unless you've killed everything, and your bottle procedures are done very carefully (aseptically), then you will end up with a fair amount of contamination. Of course there are other things you can do as well (preservatives and keeping the product cold).