01 mai 2003

Level of Endogenous Formaldehyde in Maple Syrup as Determined by Spectrofluorimetry

Auteurs : Luc Lagacé, Stéphane Guay et Nathalie Martin

Cet article est disponible seulement en anglais (Journal of AOAC International, Volume 86, Number 3, May 2003, pp. 598-601).

The level of endogenous formaldehyde in maple syrup was established from a large number (n = 300) of authentic maple syrup samples collected during 2000 and 2001 in the province of Quebec, Canada. The average level of formaldehyde from these authentic samples was measured at 0.18 mg/kg in 2000 and 0.28 mg/kg in 2001, which is lower than previously published. These average values can be attributed to the improved spectrofluorimetric method used for the determination. However, the formaldehyde values obtained demonstrate a relatively large distribution with maximums observed at 1.04 and 1.54 mg/kg. These values are still under the maximum tolerance level of 2.0 mg/kg formaldéhyde pesticide residue. Extensive heat treatment of maple syrup samples greatly enhanced the formaldehyde concentration of the samples, suggesting that extensive heat degradation of the sap constituents during evaporation could be responsible for the highest formaldehyde values in maple syrup.