Organic Maple Syrup: More Involved Than You Might Think
Organic foods are great, but if we're going to fork over for them, it's worth knowing how to make sure they are all-natural. Like anything else, not all maple syrup is organic; let's see how you can know that what you're buying is organic maple syrup, and what the difference is between it and the regular stuff.
The word organic just means that your food doesn't have any artificial preservatives and that the plants never came into contact with any chemicals like pesticides or fertilizers. First of all, the bottle of syrup has to have a sticker or something that says "organic". It's an easy mistake to make, but "pure maple syrup" is NOT the same as organic.
Also, the grade of your maple syrup has nothing to do with whether or not it's organic. Grade A and grade B maple syrup only differ in the time of year the syrup was collected, so either grade (including even grade C) can be organic maple syrup.
So what makes it organic? In order for a farm to be able to make certified organic maple syrup, it has to meet a few standards.
First, farmers can't use any chemicals to manage the sugar maple tree forest. This means no insecticide, fertilizers, etc. Surprisingly, some farms have illegally used formaldehyde in tree tapping (yeah, that's the stuff they used to preserve the frogs you dissected in high school). Obviously, this is not allowed in organic maple syrup trees. The agency that certifies organic farmers, call Quality Assurance International (QAI), even makes sure that neighboring farmers don't use any chemicals on their crops or trees.
Second, organic standards limit the amount of taps that can be in maple trees. Though maple sugar tap holes are very small and don't harm the sugar maples at all, too many of them could add up. This rule is to make sure that the trees can stay healthy for a long time to come.
Finally, the inspectors go to the sugar house to inspect the processing equipment. They inspect all the machinery, the tubes/buckets, and the bottling equipment. They check for possibility of contamination, and will even check the soaps used to clean the equipment.
Maple syrup is great because it's pure and natural. Most of the process of producing it takes place within the tree, so it's only fitting that the process should remain natural once in human hands.
