Optimization and scaling up of a manufacturing process for high value-added products from maple syrup

Maple syrup production is one of the engines of Quebec agriculture with a contribution of $600 million to Quebec's GDP. With a production of nearly 160 million pounds in 2019, Quebec represents nearly 72% of world production. More than 106 million books are exported to some thirty countries for an estimated value of more than 144 million dollars. Annual production has been growing steadily for the past few years and with this increase in production also comes an increase in volumes of syrup with flavor defects. These latter syrups, classified VR5, although edible, do not correspond to the high quality standards of the PPAQ, are excluded from sale to consumers, and are qualified as industrial with a lower value for the producer. These syrups are often produced at the end of the season and this often means that the producer stops production. In 2018, the VR5 represented nearly 3 million pounds and PPAQ has now accumulated more than 20 M pounds in inventory, having no outlet for this product. Moreover, if an outlet could be developed for these end-of-season products, this would allow producers to extend the production period by several days, thus providing them with better profitability. For several years, PPAQ has worked closely with Dr. Navindra Seeram of the URI to identify compounds (especially phenolics) present in maple syrup. In this regard, the URI has developed a method that allows the extraction of phenolic compounds (MSx-Maple Syrup Extract) and these have demonstrated their potential, as active ingredients, in several animal trials, thus opening the way to the development of products having beneficial effects on the prevention and/or reduction of metabolic conditions in humans (references 1-10).

Moreover, the production of MSx in its current form (extraction by ethanol) is not economically viable. This is how Dr Seeram and his team explored a new experimental method allowing a much simpler and more economical MSx extraction, which however needs to be optimized, validated and scaled up (results not published but presented recently during a a symposium of the American Chemical Society).

The objectives are:
1) based on the work carried out, replication and optimization of the MSx production protocol by significantly reducing the reaction time, simplifying the process and selecting unit operations that can lend themselves to large-scale production;
2) specifically identify the compounds found in the different fractions of the new formulation(s);
3) validate on a larger scale (20 liters) the new production conditions and analyze the compounds found in the fractions;
4) explore various avenues in order to recover in a simpler and less expensive way (example: selective precipitation?) the desired phenolic fractions (MSx). We therefore aim for a production and separation method that allows the economically viable extraction of MSx under food production conditions with value-added fractions. The new method will absolutely have to be transposable to an industrial scale, a scale that will allow the use of several million pounds of downgraded maple syrup (VR5) in order to extract value-added products.
5) Finally, an economic evaluation will be made of the potential applications targeted for the different fractions that can be obtained from the MSx following their separation. The ultimate goal of the project is to use the entire inventory of VR5 (industrial) syrups, year after year, and even allow the production season to be extended by developing products with greater added value.