Course Description
About the Webinar:
This webinar will prepare inspectors and certifiers to understand the requirements of the standards being used in the United States and Canada for organic maple syrup production.
It will provide tools for use by inspectors in the woods and sugar camps, and more industrial maple syrup processing situations.
The presenters are experienced organic inspectors John Welton and Claire Ackroyd, both of Maine.
The course will give an historical perspective and industry context for maple syrup inspection. The course information will differentiate the organic maple production methods at the producer level from those used by their conventional counterparts.
Organic control points related to site selection, forestry practices, sap gathering methods, equipment, sap storage, reverse osmosis, evaporation, filtration and maple syrup packing will be covered. The permitted substances used during processing and for cleaning will be presented and discussed. Recordkeeping as well as traceability examples and in/out balancing will be covered. Further considerations for on-farm processing (taffy, butter, candies) and industrial blending/bottling will also be discussed.
The course is designed for persons with organic inspection or certification review experience. Course participants preferably will have completed an IOIA Basic Inspection course and/or are already working as inspectors or reviewers.
The course will have a pre-course assignment (which will be reviewed during the webinar) and a post-course assignment, which will be graded.
About the Trainers:
John has been an inspector for 7 years and he has been training inspectors at MOFGA since 2021. He is currently working full-time at MOFGA Certification Services as certification and quality specialist. As part of his inspection history, he has inspected sugar camps throughout Maine, including the large-scale sugarbushes in northern Somerset County on the border with Quebec.
Claire Ackroyd has been inspecting maple sugaring operations for decades and is a fluent French speaker. She is also a self-published author of regional crime fiction, most notably Murder in the Maple Woods, which features organic fraud in the sugaring culture and landscape of northern Maine.
To Register and Pay: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/257238890768212056
Scheduling:
This course is comprised of 3 components: self-study pre-webinar assignment, the webinar presentations, and a final evaluation exam. The webinar will include in-class discussion, examples, exercises and the opportunity for questions and answers. The course concludes with an exam to evaluate individual learning.
Assignment Due Dates and Information:
Pre-Webinar: 12:00pm (Pacific): December 1, 2025
Final Exam: 11:55pm (Pacific): December 10, 2025
Your Pre-Webinar Assignment will be emailed to you two weeks prior to the due date. Your Final Exam will be sent to you at the conclusion of the webinar session.
Grades and Certificates:
IOIA will follow-up with you within 30 days of the completion of the webinar with your course outcome.
Schedule
Start Time: 9:00 a.m. (Pacific)
End Time: 12:00 p.m. (Pacific)
Requirements
Certificates: Participants who meet minimum requirements will receive an IOIA Certificate of Completion.
Letters of Participation: Participants who attend the webinar but opt out of the assignment submission, fail to achieve a passing score will receive an IOIA Letter of Participation, to document their attendance.
Please Note: Certificates and Letters of Participation will not be provided until the course is paid in full.