The federal floors, and why they differ by syrup
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The four
- Maple sirup, 21 CFR 168.140: not less than 66 percent by weight of soluble solids, derived solely from maple sap.
- Cane sirup, 21 CFR 168.130: not less than 74 percent, derived solely from sugarcane juice.
- Sorghum sirup, 21 CFR 168.160: not less than 74 percent, derived solely from sorghum cane juice.
- Table sirup, 21 CFR 168.180: not less than 65 percent soluble sweetener solids, which is the pancake and waffle syrup category.
Why they are not the same number
Because they are not the same kind of rule as a safety threshold. Each one describes what buyers have historically meant by that word, so the figure follows the traditional product rather than a single biological line. Cane and sorghum sit much higher than maple, which surprises people who assume one syrup standard covers all of them.
The phrase that does as much work as the number
Each of these says the solids must be derived solely from that sap or juice. A maple syrup extended with another sugar is not maple syrup at a lower grade; it is outside the standard entirely and has to be named as something else. Table syrup exists precisely to be the category where blending is allowed, and it carries its own naming rules for saying so.
What a formulated syrup is governed by
If what you make is not one of the standardized syrups, there is no identity floor to hit and you choose your own density. That freedom is real and it is also the trap: nothing external tells you when the product is too thin to keep, so the number has to come from you and be recorded.
The number is per product, not per bottle size
Unlike a thermal process, a density standard does not change with the container. A 100 ml bottle and a 473 ml bottle of the same syrup meet the same figure, because the number describes the syrup rather than how much of it there is. That is one of the few places this craft is simpler than the acidified ones, where a new jar size means a new process.