All Natural Syrup

[Clan Delaney]

Aunt Jemima - none listed. Love me some Sodium Hexametaphosphate on my breakfast, though.

Vermont Maid - none listed. To paraphrase one of my favorite Simpsons exchanges: "The syrup contains sodium benzoate!" "That's good!" "No, that's bad."

Mrs. Butterworths - none listed.

Log Cabin - actually lists "pure maple syrup" as the fifth ingredient. It's the fifth ingredient in my syrup as well, but so are the first four.

[Amber Gold]

Thanks clan, just what I was looking for. I'm working on my website and want to have a page which lists the fake stuff, what the maple content is, and what other good things are in it...such as cellulose gum in Aunt Jemima...hmmm.

I'm surprised Maple Grove is putting their name on this product.

Also, nice job on part 1 and 2 of your rant on the "natural" syrup.

I was reading somewhere, the fake syrup started back in the late 1800's and started out as ~50% real syrup. Over time as other fake syrup's came into the market and the real syrup levels dropped (I think it was still 30% in the '70's), until it dropped to 0-4% where it is now.

[Clan Delaney]

I was reading somewhere, the fake syrup started back in the late 1800's and started out as ~50% real syrup. Over time as other fake syrup's came into the market and the real syrup levels dropped (I think it was still 30% in the '70's), until it dropped to 0-4% where it is now.

Industrial food only cares about three things: more, faster, cheaper. The only way to achieve that with fake syrups is to remove the real maple from it, because we can't produce as much maple as they can produce HFCS, we're seasonal, and I believe that most of us want to get paid a decent price for our product.

I'm starting to worry about our product getting forced into becoming a commodity, instead of a specialty product. I don't ever intend to become like the corn farmer who has to upgrade and plant more every year for the honor of going deeper into debt.

[DrTimPerkins]

I was reading somewhere, the fake syrup started back in the late 1800's and started out as ~50% real syrup. Over time as other fake syrup's came into the market and the real syrup levels dropped (I think it was still 30% in the '70's), until it dropped to 0-4% where it is now.

Some of the first USDA food laws were made due to "maple syrup" adulteration. The Vermont Maple Sugar Makers Association is one of the oldest agricultural organizations in the U.S., and was formed partly to fight the maple syrup adulteration problems rampant in the late 1800s. Apparently at one time there was more "maple syrup" being produced in factories in Chicago than anywhere else.

I testified earlier today to the Vermont Senate Ag committee about these issues. Here in Vermont you don't mess with maple.