Order maple syrup, get maple syrup. That’s the simple premise of a bipartisan bill at the Capitol in Madison.
“When you go into a restaurant you see maple syrup you’re getting on your pancakes, you’re getting your Karo syrup and stuff,” said Theresa Bauroun, with the Wisconsin Maple Syrup Producers organization. “People aren’t actually putting maple in the place where it should be. Maple and all the work that it puts into making that maple syrup. We really want the consumer to be aware.”
Restaurants would be prohibited from serving syrup substitutes if their menus list maple syrup, although the bill carries no penalties if they don’t comply.
Wisconsin has a similar law that bars restaurants from serving margarine instead of butter, unless the customer asks for it or both are offered.
According to UW Extension, Wisconsin’s annual production of about 400,000 gallons of maple syrup puts it in 4th place behind Vermont, New York and Maine.