A WISEcode label story

Mrs. Butterworth’s, meet a maple tree.

Spoiler: they’ve never actually met.

A bottle of Mrs. Butterworth's Original Syrup sliding in from the left, its face wide-eyed and open-mouthed in surprise at the towering maple tree

What it is

Real syrup is a tree, boiled down

Real maple is one ingredient: clear sap, tapped straight from the tree and boiled until the water leaves and the sugar stays.

About forty gallons of sap make a single gallon of syrup — one tree, one slow season.

This bottle skips all of it. Its sweetness began in a cornfield.

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Test it Yourself

Pour them side by side
Real maple versus table syrup

Two glasses pour at once: real maple runs thin and breaks off clean while table syrup pours thick and ropey

Same glass, same height, both tipped at once.

Real maple runs thin and fast — it's boiled-down sap, most of the water gone — and breaks off clean. Table syrup pours thick and ropey: its body is corn syrup and gum, so it clings and trails a long tail.

Spot the tell

Find the word “maple” in the ingredients

High-fructose corn syrup
Corn syrup
Water
Cellulose gum
Cane syrup & molasses
Caramel color — the amber
Salt
Sodium benzoate & potassium sorbate (preservatives)
Natural & artificial flavors — the taste
Mono- & diglycerides
Maple syrup not on the list

Here’s this bottle’s real ingredient list. High-fructose corn syrup and corn syrup do the sweetening, caramel color does the amber, and natural & artificial flavors do the taste.

The tell isn’t an ingredient that’s there. It’s the one that isn’t — the words “maple syrup” appear nowhere on the list.

WISEcode UPF Score

How processed is it?

The old way lumps almost every packaged food into one bin and calls it ultra-processed. WISEcode UPF scores provide more transparency and nuance than that.

WISEcode weighs every processed ingredient and any added sugar, then grades each food across five levels.

Minimal whole foods, a simple ingredient or two

Light a handful of ingredients, maybe a little sugar

Moderate around ten ingredients, a couple of additives

Ultra artificial colours, flavours, preservatives

Super-ultra built on industrial additives

The verdict

[ WISEcode level ]

It’s honestly labeled — everything this bottle is, is right there on the panel. It just isn’t maple.

✓Nothing is hidden. It’s sold as “Original Syrup,” not “maple,” and the panel names every ingredient. The label is doing its job.

!The sweetness is corn syrup and high-fructose corn syrup, the amber is caramel color, and the maple taste is added flavor — which can come from fenugreek rather than a tree.

!It’s mostly sugar: about FILL-IN g of added sugars per serving. So is real maple — this is about knowing which one you bought, not “real maple is health food.”

There is a federal standard for syrup, and it’s exactly what lets a maple-free “Original Syrup” be sold as syrup — under a looser rule-book than real maple’s. The WISEcode score reads how a food is made, not how healthy it is. Now you can see which river your bottle came from.

The receipt

It’s all on the label

A bottle of Mrs. Butterworth's Original Syrup

Nutrition Facts

Servings: about 24

Serving size2 tbsp (30mL)

Amount per serving

Calories110

% Daily Value*

Total Fat 0g0%

Sat. Fat 0g0%

Trans Fat 0g

Cholesterol 0mg0%

Sodium 80mg3%

Total Carbohydrate 27g10%

Dietary Fiber 0g0%

Total Sugars 22g

Includes 22g Added Sugars44%

Protein 0g

Vitamin D 0% · Calcium 0% · Iron 0% · Potassium 0%

* The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a serving of food contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice.

The panel tells you the sugar and the ingredients. It never tells you how processed it is — or which river it came from.
WISEcode can help bring transparency to your food.

Transparency, not a verdict

You can’t un-see it now.

Same idea, any bottle, any aisle. The label tells you what’s in it. WISEcode tells you what it is — and which river it came from.

Scan another product →