MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) – Henry Marckres is a cop with no gun or gold badge.

The tools of his trade are his eyes, his taste buds and a hydrometer. His beat: Vermont maple syrup.

Marckres is technically a “maple specialist,” but some in the business call him a “maple cop.” He helps enforce Vermont’s maple regulations for the state Agency of Agriculture, which strictly regulates how Vermont’s most famous export is made, marketed and sold.

He tastes it and fields consumer complaints about it. He inspects sugarhouse evaporators and filter presses. He serves as a judge in maple syrup contests.

And when a new pancake syrup or ice cream hits the market advertising “Vermont maple” as an ingredient, Marckres makes sure its flavors are straight out of the woods. If not, the sticky arm of the law is soon reaching out to them.

Violators can be imprisoned, although a simple warning letter usually does the trick.

In Vermont, which produces about 500,000 gallons a year from its annual spring sugaring season, protecting the brand is job No. 1.

“You want to make sure that when people buy pure maple syrup, that what they’re getting is in fact pure, high-quality maple syrup,” said Timothy Perkins, director of the University of Vermont Proctor Maple Research Center. “That’s what the image of the product is based on, and all the marketing. If we didn’t have someone out there making sure that was the case, we could run into trouble.”

Marckres tastes syrup at least twice a week, and daily during Vermont’s maple sugar season, which starts in March with the running of sap and ends four to six weeks later. He once had 924 samples in one day.

“The best part, most of the time, is the taste,” he says.

Hazards of the job

But not always – the 53-year-old Marckres was diagnosed with diabetes 15 years ago and has been hospitalized three times as a result of on-the-job tastings of bad syrup. To cope with the diabetes, he keeps his sips small, chases them with water and keeps close tabs on his blood sugar levels.

The son of a buyer for a maple sugar company, Marckres started tasting and grading syrup when he was 3. Trained in technical school, he signed on with the state as a field inspector 24 years ago and rose to become head of the Agency of Agriculture’s six-person consumer protection section.

Its inspectors travel around to sugarhouses, gift shops and farms where maple syrup is sold, plucking bottles off the shelf to taste-test, check sugar concentration and make sure it’s properly graded.

The state has four grades, from the light amber Vermont Fancy with a delicate bouquet to Grade B, which is the strongest, darkest grade, and often preferred for cooking.

Sensitive palate

Marckres can identify “off flavors” – metallic, plastic or musty, for example – and can usually figure out where they came from. Maple producers, consumers and fellow regulators from around the country seek him out.

“His palate, being able to pick up the slightest off flavor or hint of what might be in the syrup, is amazing,” said Gary Graham, professor of natural resources at Ohio State University, who is Marckres’ counterpart in the state of Ohio. “He’s an encyclopedia on flavors and production.”

The term “maple cop” – coined by Graham – fits Marckres.

When he gets on the trail of a merchant or maker who flouts some aspect of the state’s agricultural products law, he enlists Assistant Attorney General Michael Duane to decide how to prosecute. Violators can be fined up to $5,000 or imprisoned for a year.

“We take the maple law seriously,” Duane said. “Maple syrup is really our signature crop.”

About four times a year, the state’s lawyers crack down on merchants who market improperly labeled products. While its jurisdiction only extends to products sold in Vermont, most targets move to comply once they’re warned, according to Duane.

In 2003, the state imposed a $10,000 fine on Upcountry Naturals, a subsidiary of B&G Foods, which had a maple syrup product whose label said: “Vermont’s own good-for-you foods,” but contained Canadian maple syrup.

All the regulation may go unseen by consumers, but not unnoticed.

“When they come in the sugarhouse for a tour, it’s one of the first things they ask us. ‘Is there any inspection, any oversight in the sugaring industry?”‘ said Doug Bragg, a maple sugar maker in East Montpelier. “If we said “No, there isn’t,’ they wouldn’t be very impressed.”

AP-ES-03-23-08 1334EDT

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