Canadians take maple syrup seriously. To be legally labeled as maple syrup, the product has to be 100% maple syrup. Otherwise, it is called table syrup. And no one in Canada takes maple syrup more seriously than Quebec. So it was a major scandal when maple syrup from producer Steve Bourdeau was found to contain 50% cane sugar! This is the first case of widespread maple fraud in Quebec, which has a serious inspection system. Bourdeau claims that any adulteration was done outside of his business, as he has bought syrup from Ontario. But cans of Érablière Steve Bourdeau are still being sold in stores, with their labels covered with different names. Bourdeau dismisses this as unimportant, because they will be sold out soon. It's also alleged that he is repackaging adulterated syrup that has been returned.
The Québec Maple Syrup Producers federation has been looking into Bordeau's business for some time. The adulteration was uncovered when a journalist thought his maple syrup didn't taste right and had it analyzed. This may seem weird to Americans, who use maple-flavored corn syrup on pancakes and just assume that any product that is suspiciously affordable has been adulterated, but now we know that we can trust maple syrup from Quebec to be stringently pure -unless it has Bordeau's name on it. You'll find more links about this ongoing scandal at Metafilter.
(Image credit: Dvortygirl)
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