Maine’s Neighbor To The North Has A Sticky Food Scandal Pancaking Across Its Country

A Canadian radio reporter thought the “pure maple syrup” he’d just bought tasted weird so he followed his hunch.

He took it for testing to a food lab, which determined the syrup was half cane sugar.

The maple farmer who distributed the doctored syrup is now a potential target of a class-action lawsuit from consumers across Canada.

The scandal began a week ago in Quebec but has now spread to Ontario.

Canada proudly guards its reputation as the world’s largest producer of maple syrup.

So the potential taint of its top seasonal agricultural export has the makings of arguably the largest food scandal ever in Maine’s northern neighbor.

Quebec Agriculture Minister Donald Martel told the CBC on Thursday he was “outraged” by the fake maple syrup being found on store shelves.

Martel said various investigations were underway.

“We have rules, we make sure that these rules are followed, we do a very rigorous job in this regard,” he said.

A consumer is asking a judge to approve a class-action lawsuit over the fake syrup.

“I think this is awful,” Daro Turner, the lawyer behind the class action, told CBC. “This is terrible conduct worthy of rebuke.”

The farmer suspected of distributing allegedly fake syrup claims it may have come from one of his suppliers.