February 26, 2017 by Lisa Rathke

Maple syrup doesn't get that rich flavor and color in an instant. It's a long process from tree to bottle.

But an improved technology could keep maple sugarers from working late into the night boiling sap into syrup.

The new machine removes more water from sap, leaving it with higher sugar content. The concentrated sap takes half the time to boil into syrup.

"For commercial maple producers, time is money and energy is money. It all comes down to how efficient you can be to make syrup, and this is just the next big step to save time," said Timothy Perkins, director of the University of Vermont's Proctor Maple Research Center.

The center produced its first batch of syrup with a new machine last week. "It definitely processed syrup very, very fast," Perkins said.

Most large maple operations already use the traditional reverse osmosis systems that have a membrane that separate water from sugar. The new reverse osmosis technology removes even more water.

Producing maple syrup is an old New England cottage industry based on tradition, so some maple sugarers are wondering if faster is actually better. They worry it could impact the quality.

"We're questioning it," said Eric Randall, president of the North American Maple Syrup Council. "We're looking to see that we're doing the right thing."

Perkins said the flavor of the syrup produced with the new machine is so far acceptable as the center continues to research the technology.

Parker Family Maple Farm, in West Chazee, New York, expects a new machine to arrive Wednesday that may double its syrup production. "We're anticipating making 300 gallons of syrup an hour" with the new machine, Michael Parker said.

Dozens of producers in Vermont, New York, Maine and Wisconsin are now using the machines, which are made by a handful of companies. It's an investment of tens of thousands of dollars depending on the size of the maple operation and how much equipment is needed. Industry officials say the cost is about 15 to 20 percent higher than the cost of the current technology.

Parker said the time savings will be welcome. "There's only so many hours in a day and we're using all of them," he said.

Explore further: How fresh is your maple syrup?

2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

The maple syrup that's tapped from the tree may not be as fresh as you think it is.

Forget about buckets. In recent years, maple syrup has been made with reverse osmosis sap extractors and air injectors. This week, the University of Vermont's Proctor Maple Research Center in Underhill Center, VT, has opened ...

Maple syrup, a concentrated sap from the maple tree Acer saccarum, is used as a sweet alternative to refined sugar across the world. Scientists are becoming interested in maple syrup as a source of beneficial compounds such ...

For decades, maple syrup producers have eyed the weather to help understand spring sugar yields. But new research in the journal Forest Ecology and Management reveals a more valuable metric for understanding and even ...

Catherine Aaron and Gabrielle Beaudry were 17 when they knocked on the door of the laboratory of Alex Parker, a neuroscience researcher at the University of Montreal Hospital Research Centre (CRCHUM). While students at Collge ...

The future of sweet syrup could come from some unlikely sources: birch and walnut trees.

Photographers, poachers and eco-tour operators are in the crosshairs of a Canadian conservationist who warns that tracking tags are being hacked and misused to harass and hunt endangered animals.

Bioengineers at the University of California San Diego have developed a new tool to identify interactions between RNA and DNA molecules. The tool, called MARGI (Mapping RNA Genome Interactions), is the first technology that's ...

Small "bubbles" frequently form on membranes of cells and are taken up into their interior. The process involves EHD proteins - a focus of research by Prof. Oliver Daumke of the MDC. He and his team have now shed light on ...

The first skirmish was fought last week in what could be a long war over a revolutionary patent on gene-editing technology, with colossal amounts of money at stake.

Scientists from The University of Western Australia have identified a tiny mutation in plants that can influence how well a plant recovers from stressful conditions, and ultimately impact a plant's survival.

The last Neanderthal died 40,000 years ago, but much of their genome lives on, in bits and pieces, through modern humans. The impact of Neanderthals' genetic contribution has been uncertain: Do these snippets affect our genome's ...

Please sign in to add a comment. Registration is free, and takes less than a minute. Read more

View post:

Improved technology saves maple syrup producers time, energy - Phys.Org