Application of 2H SNIF-NMR and 13C SIRA-MS analyses to maple syrup: detection of added sugars

The SNIF-NMR method may be used to measure the site specific isotope concentrations in a variety of organic compounds. The most common application of this technique involves quantitative deuterium nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy with appropriate interpretation of the accumulated spectra. SNIF-NMR together with SIRA-MS provides a powerful tool for food authentication and characterization. The concerted use of SNIF-NMR (deuterium) and SIRA-MS (carbon-13) on ethanol fermented from sugars has proven invaluable to the authentication of wines, spirits, and fruit juices. In this work, the analysis is extended to the authentication of maple syrup, a product rich in sucrose. Authentic maple syrup samples have been analyzed in detail to characterize the intrinsic variability of the isotopic ratios in this product. These data constitute a data base of authentic samples to which an unknown example of maple syrup can be compared. The isotopic ratios obtained from maple syrup are very different from those of bo...