Alleged maple syrup scam in Quebec uncovered by Canadian broadcaster

A Radio-Canada reporter noticed his maple syrup tasted odd; testing revealed it was adulterated with cane sugar An investigation by Canada’s national broadcaster has found that a major Quebec producer has been diluting its maple syrup with cane sugar and selling the fraudulent product to grocery chains. In a sting operation that involved false identities and covert recordings, journalists from Radio-Canada’s Enquête programme found that a low-cost syrup sold in major grocery store chains was heavily diluted. Samples of the brand, which is sold in hundreds of locations across Quebec, were sent to the province’s research and testing facility, Le Centre ACER. “This is the first time I’ve seen falsification of this kind. You can see that it’s outright cane sugar that’s been added to the cans,” Luc Lagacé, a microbiologist and the director of research at ACER, told Enquête. “This is not an accident. It’s deliberate.” Maple syrup is a dominant industry in Quebec, where decades of technological innovation and investment helped farmers harvest 239m pounds of it last year. The Francophone province is responsible for nearly all of Canada’s production and nearly three-quarters of global produ