Tis the season for celebrating a sweet treat! Nope, not sweet potatoes or gingerbread—maple syrup! National Maple Syrup Day falls on December 17th every year. It’s a day for enjoying another warm and comforting flavor during the holidays. But it’s also a great time to consider how this natural sweetener made it to your plate. Learn about the filtering process for maple syrup and how diatomaceous earth plays a pivotal part.

What is National Maple Syrup Day

If you believe breakfast foods can be savored during any meal and you’re a fan of maple-infused recipes, National Maple Syrup Day is a wonderful time to celebrate. This natural sweetener is made from the sap of maple trees. But the production process is more complicated than simply tapping the plant for syrup.

Observing Maple Syrup Day is not only an ideal time to savor the rich flavor of nature’s creation, but it’s also important to appreciate the hard work that goes into its production. There’s a dedicated process for ensuring maple syrup is a pure product, free of particles and residues. For this process to work, producers need a specialized filter that can handle sticky situations.

Filtering Maple Syrup

Once a maple tree is tapped the collected sap is boiled to concentrate the sugar content. Sugar sand (mineral deposits) naturally forms while the syrup is boiled. These gritty impurities should be filtered out to achieve a clearer, cleaner product.

Filtering helps improve the clarity and quality of the syrup, so the filter aid needs to be of high food-grade quality itself. It also needs to effectively handle the high temperature of boiled syrup without compromising the product. These are several reasons why diatomaceous earth (DE) is often used for the task of filtering maple syrup.

Why Diatomaceous Earth is an Excellent Maple Syrup Filter

During the production process, DE is added into the hot syrup. When the mixture is pumped through a filter press, DE traps impurities on its surface while the syrup flows through. The filtered syrup emerges clear and clean, while the DE and deposits are left behind on the filter media.

Using DE as a filter provides more than a visually appealing product. Here are some other reasons why syrup should be filtered:

1. Achieve a longer shelf-life by removing leftover organic material that could cause spoiling.
2. Allow higher volumes of syrup to be processed without interruptions.
3. Increase the effectiveness of the production process by preventing filters from clogging.
4. Removing impurities helps the syrup maintain its pure maple flavor.

While there are other filter aids that can get the job done, DE is an ideal choice for several reasons:

• Highly porous design traps more impurities.
• Inert and safe for food-grade applications.
• Lightweight and easy to use.
• Naturally sourced.
• Withstands high temperatures of boiled sap.

If you’re looking for an eco-friendly way to filter a natural product, DE is the filter aid to use.

Celebrate National Maple Syrup Day with Dicalite Management Group

You can start the day with a delicious syrup-topped pancake or waffle breakfast, add maple glazes to your favorite dishes, or finish things off with a syrup-infused treat. But with every sweet bite, remember the hard-working producers that tapped the tree and boiled the sap. Then give thanks for the filters that helped bring out the rich color and robust flavor. And if you’re looking for some DE for your filtering needs, contact Dicalite Management Group, a leader of domestically produced diatomaceous earth, mined from our deposits to ensure the highest quality results.