Posted on 05/03/2018 7:13:43 AM PDT by Michamilton
EAST MONTPELIER – Producers of pure maple syrup and honey aren’t sweet on a plan to label their pure natural products as containing added sugars.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration will be requiring updated nutrition labels for products that are expected to say that pure maple syrup and honey contain added sugars, which the producers and officials say is misleading and confusing and could hurt their industries.
"There are no added sugars. Maple is a pure product," said U.S. Rep. Peter Welch of Vermont, the top maple producing state in the country.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Nanny Government screwing over working Americans again.
This is all a result of MASSIVE lobbying by the taxpayer-subsidized corn industry, which is facing a well-deserved backlash against its horrific High Fructose Corn Syrup poison. Big Corn needs to be taken down. HFCS, Ethanol. Ridiculous, tax-funded boondoggles that hurt the economy and increase diabetes and heart disease.
LOL! DON'T give them any ideas!
“Don’t give them ideas”
I got one that’s even easier. CA prop 43 maple syrup
Not true. Many producers of maple syrup and honey augment their product with sugar and don't tell the consumer. For some bizarre reason, it's okay for them to list their product as "pure" honey or maple syrup. This bill would correct this. If other producers of food products are required to do this, they should too.
I say this as someone who worked our family farm which included about a thousand maple trees that we tapped in the spring and made syrup in our sugar bush every year. We NEVER added sugar to our product, and sold it as true 100% natural and pure maple syrup.
Maple syrup is primarily composed of a mixture of sugars, water, and minerals. In addition to these three components maple syrup will contain small amounts of various other organic compounds such as organic acids, amino acids, proteins, phenol compounds and even a few vitamins. Variation in the levels of these various components gives maple syrup the broad spectrum of flavors experienced with syrup from different producers and from different sap runs at the same location.
Okay, I just spent the last five minutes casting about for what your post meant...can you summarize it for me?
Unless it comes from China.
I felt like I was going down a rabbit hole, then got into a BPA hole (What the hell is BPA, reading it made me think of Alar and what a dumb sh**show that was)
I decided to stop there. I live in one of the bluest states, but I look at what goes on in California sometimes and it seems like another PLANET when viewed from even a lofty liberal perch.
That's not what this regulation is about, though. This would require Maple producers like your family who don't add anything to label their syrup as having "added sugars".
Does it mean it is 67% by weight or content pure maple sugar when boiled down to a finished product? (without having anything added?)
I think people would appreciate having a label that says "Maple syrup with added sugar or corn syrup" or something like that if they actually did add those things, but it sounds the label has to go on every product.
I got the impression it was being done almost more for a dietary reason (YOU MUST HAVE LESS SUGAR) rather than a manufacturing reason (corn syrup and water were added to stretch the basic component of maple syrup)
From the article:
"...To address industry concerns, the FDA has suggested that producers could use a symbol after the added sugars daily value directing consumers to elsewhere on the label where they could say these sugars occur naturally.
FDA Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb said he has made nutrition one of his top priorities, and the Nutrition Facts label hasn’t been meaningfully updated in decades.
“We’ve made it our goal to increase consumer awareness of the quantity of added sugars in food products consistent with recent dietary guideline recommendations,” he said in a statement released in March. “The new label also contains the new daily value for added sugars, so consumers can better understand how foods with added sugars can fit into a healthy dietary pattern..."
It sounds like the FDA wants to force ALL manufacturers to put a "warning" on the product, but if your product is "pure" and "unadulterated", maybe you can put ANOTHER thing on your product "...directing consumers to elsewhere on the label where they could say these sugars occur naturally..."
Good God. Is it me? Why don't they just require producers to ADD a notice if they adulterate their product with ANYTHING, and let others say "100% Pure" honey, maple syrup, or whatever?
Does this seem like a typical Kafkaesque implementation of what doesn't seem like a bad idea...to just tell people if it is pure or adulterated?
Yeah - literally all they're doing is evaporating off water from the sap until they hit 67% by weight. I don't have problems with requiring labeling for products that actually do add sugar, but including products with naturally occurring sugar seems a stretch.
Agreed. The honey and maple syrup producers have gone the route of the olive oil producers.
As long as it looks good and tastes ok then there can’t possibly be a problem, can there?
I was in a grocery store a while back to buy stock for my prepper supplies, figured I’d splurge on some real, true to life maple syrup.
Bought it... but it was not cheap, about 9 bucks a bottle, and not a very big bottle!
That’s what thought. I just don’t understand why they want them to put that on labels for pure products, which is what they want to do!
This appears to be aimed at reducing people’s sugar intake, which is a concept the government has no business being in. I abhor them telling people what they can and cannot eat.
I am okay with the manufacturing notice, if needed. But geez, if it IS, can’t they have half a brain about it?
Adding cane sugar to maple syrup would make the the maple syrup not pure. And adding maple syrup to cane sugar would make it not pure cane sugar.
Again, nothing was said about cane sugar being impure. And the FDA doesn't appear to be arguing that evaporated cane sugar needs to note 'added sugar', only that evaporated maple syrup needs to do so.
Probably need to look at folks making things like Mrs Butterworths (slightly) maple flavored syrups. Some such lobbyist wants better comparison to the real stuff.
But those imported from China do. Most honey originating from China is adulterated with cheap corn syrup.
I only buy honey that is known to originate in the USA, either from a local bee keeper or a brand that is trustworthy.
OMG. That would be hilarious to have on a bottle of honey.
But those imported from China do. Most honey originating from China is adulterated with cheap corn syrup.
I only buy honey that is known to originate in the USA, either from a local bee keeper or a brand that is trustworthy.
And having American producers of un-adulterated honey and syrup slap on a label saying their product contains "added sugars" helps this how?
You are correct: it doesn't help anything! I guess I phrased my previous comment poorly.
I know if I saw a label that said "added sugar" I'd think that the product was adulterated. It is almost as though this regulation is designed as a cover for the substandard Chinese products.
California proposition 43 is the infamous law where everything must be labeled “state of CA has determined that this product may contain substances which can cause cancer”
CA recently announced they would like Starbucks to put it on their coffee. Now all the coffee companies have to come out with statements that say if you drink coffee you will live longer
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