U.S. Senators Charles E. Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand have introduced legislation that would make intentionally mislabeling food products as maple syrup a federal crime.

This form of food fraud is now only a misdemeanor. The legislation would make these crimes a felony, increasing sentences that prosecutors can seek for people who defraud consumers and farmers by intentionally mislabeling maple syrup.

Maple syrup from St. Lawrence County helps make New York the second largest producer of maple syrup in the U.S.

“Maple farmers across New York state produce some of the highest quality syrup in the world,” said Senator Schumer. “We need to crack down on individuals trying to pass off fake syrup as the real thing, so that our farmers can compete fair and square. The only thing that should be flowing over mom’s pancakes is good, pure, New York maple syrup.”

“We shouldn’t allow production to be hampered by fraudulent behavior,” Senator Gillibrand said. “This bill ensures that producers of real maple syrup can sell their product in an honest market and that consumers know what they’re paying for.”

The bill is being introduced in response to a recent U.S. Food and Drug Administration investigation that determined that a Rhode Island man was marketing and selling a product as maple syrup when in fact it was cane sugar. Cane sugar costs about 2 percent as much as real maple syrup, thus defrauding consumers who believed that they were purchasing real maple syrup.

The bipartisan Maple Agriculture Protection and Law Enforcement (MAPLE) Act would increase the maximum penalty for fraudulently selling maple syrup that is not, in fact, maple syrup from one year to five years in prison.