The Rural Voice, 1998-03, Page 35The maple syrup industry has devised a quality assurance
program designed to show producers how to make their
operations turn out top grade syrup consumers can count on.
Shirley Nazlitt, right, has conducted workshops across the
province to help producers qualify.
Sealed for quality
Ontario maple syrup producers look
to the future with a quality
assurance program
By Keith Roulston
Spring comes, the sun is warm and images of
traditional maple syrup making come to mind. Sap
pails hanging on a tree. Sap boiling down in a big
iron pot on a tripod with an open fire underneath. Thick,
hot syrup poured on snow to make instant candy. It
may be nostalgic, but, practically, it's the kind of
image that sends shudders through progressive
maple syrup producers.
Instead, in this age of increasing
consumer scrutiny of food health and
quality, the industry's leaders prefer
consistent quality and purity to the
homespun images of days long gone.
That's why more than 130 maple syrup
producers across Ontario have spent part
of their preparation time for this season
attending workshops to qualify for the
privilege of attaching the new Ontario Maple
Seal of Quality to their maple syrup containers this
spring.
The idea of a seal of quality was first proposed by the
Lanark County Maple Syrup Producers Association back in
1990 as they examined ways to enhance marketing of their
product. The idea was to establish a code of practice for
producers to follow so consumers could be be assured the
product was of good quality. When the Ministry of
Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs started reducing the
number of inspectors checking up on maple syrup quality,
the Ontario Maple Syrup Producers Association decided
it was time to act to protect the reputation of the
industry. The idea is to have producers help
other producers and monitor their compliance
with the code of practice in order to warrant
the seal of quality.
Inspiration for the program was drawn
from the Environmental Farm Plan, the
Vintners Quality Alliance (VQA) in the
wine industry and the Orchard Crisp
program for apple producers, says Shirley
Nazlitt of Benmiller who has been hired to
co-ordinate the Seal of Quality program. The
committee setting up the program liked the
way the Environmental Farm Plan was working,
the way it allowed farmers to design their own
solutions to problems.
The result is a workshop program, like the EFP, at
which producers are given information, and asked to look
at their operation and rate what they are doing, right from
t
MARCH 1998 31