When you reach for the sugar bowl, you arereaching for sucrose. And, whether you know itor not, you’re opting for one of the purest foodsfound on the kitchen pantry shelf and in pre-pared food products. For thousands of yearssugar has been an important food ingredientthat provides a balanced sweet taste, safety asa preservative and provides functional proper-ties essential in a multitude of foods.

Sugar (sucrose) is a natural carbohydrate,found in fruits and vegetables. All green plantsmanufacture sugar through photosynthesis,the process by which plants generate energyand food reserves from sunlight.

Just as sugar plays a vital role in the growthand life cycle of plants, it is an importantingredient in our food supply. While all fruitsand vegetables produce sugar, the sugar caneand sugar beet plants contain the most accessi-ble stores of sucrose.

Sugar is purifiedFor many people, the term “refined” has lostits original meaning “to purify” and now car-ries a negative connotation. With sugar therefining process simply removes all impuritiesand the surrounding plant matter leaving onlythe pure sucrose.

To further your understanding of sugar(sucrose) and its path from the field to thetable, we provide the following plant to pantrytour.

Raising CANESugar cane is a tropicalgrass that grows 10-20feet high. Four U.S.states produce sugarcane: Florida, Hawaii,Louisiana and Texas. Astalk of the sugar caneplant contains 12-14%sucrose. The process ofseparating sugar fromthe sugar cane plant isaccomplished in twosteps: at sugar mills and at sugar refineries.

The Sugar Mills are located near the sugarcane fields. It is here that the raw sugar is sep-arated from the plant and shipped to a refin-ery. First, the sugar cane stalks are washedand cut into shreds by rotating knives. Next,huge rollers press the juice out of the shreddedpulp. This juice is then:

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Make an informed choice. Choose pure natural sugar – 15 calories per teaspoon.

The Sugar Association, Inc. 1300 L Street NW, Suite 1001, Washington, DC 20005 202/785-1122 www.sugar.org

•Clarified-by adding milk of lime and carbondioxide. The carbon dioxide bubbles throughthe mixture forming calcium carbonate, achalk like crystal which attracts the non-sugarplant materials like wax, fats, and gums fromthe juice. In a clarifier, the calcium carbonateand the other materials fall out of the sucrosesolution and settle to the bottom.

•Concentrated-by removing water from theclarified juice in multiple stages under vacu-um. This allows the juice to boil at lower tem-peratures to protect the sugar fromcaramelization. The juice becomes a clear, richbrown syrup during this step.

•Crystallized-by evaporating the last portionof water under very tight controls in a vacuumpan. Seed grain (pulverized sugar) is fed intothe pan as the water evaporates and crystalsbegin to form. The mixture leaves the vacuumpan as a thick crystal mass and is sent to acentrifuge, a large perforated basket spinningvery rapidly much like a washing machine inthe spin cycle, where it is spun and dried,yielding golden raw sugar.

Raw sugar is approximately 96-98% sucrose.The nearly pure sugar crystal is covered by athin film of molasses, the thick raw syrup fromthe mill. The molasses coating contains sugar,water, plant material, minerals, and other non-sugars.

The Cane Sugar Refinery transforms rawsugar into granulated sugar, brown sugar, and

other consumer and food industry products.

•Bulk raw sugar arrives at the refinery onships or in railroad boxcars. It is mixed withwarm affination syrup (a solution of water andsugar) to loosen the molasses surrounding theraw sugar crystals. This produces a batter-likemixture called magma.

•Large centrifuges spin the magma and sepa-rate the molasses film from the crystals.

•The crystals are washed, dissolved, clarifiedor filtered to remove the molasses and insolu-ble impurities. At this point, the product is aclear, golden-colored liquid.

•Carbon filters remove the remaining color,producing a water-white sugar syrup. Thesyrup is concentrated by evaporating some ofthe water.

•This concentrated syrup is fed into a vacuumpan where it is seeded with fine sugar crystals.Through the skillful evaporation of the remain-ing water, these fine crystals are grown in therich solution of sugar to produce perfect sugarcrystals of the proper size.

•The sugar is spun in a centrifuge where theremaining syrup is spun off and the sugarcrystals are washed with fresh, hot water.From the centrifuge the damp crystals are con-veyed to large dryers where the moisture con-tent of the sugar crystals is reduced fromapproximately 1% to .03%.

•The dried granulated sugar passes overscreens to separate the various sizes of sugarcrystals. Large and small crystals are pack-aged for standard consumer use and accordingto the specifications of industrial customers.

It’s in the BEETSugar beets flourish in temperate climateswhere the soil is rich and the growing seasonis about five months long. Farms can be foundin California, Colorado, Idaho, Michigan,Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota,Oregon, and Wyoming.

Sugar beets contain 16-18% sucrose and areprocessed at factories near the farms. Since

sugars beets are grownand harvested seasonal-ly, factories generallyoperate for a campaign(a period of time) offour to seven months.During these cam-paigns, facilities oper-ate around-the-clock,seven days a week.

The Sugar BeetFactorySugar beet processing

takes place in one location. At the factory,sugar beets are washed and sliced into thinstrips called cossettes. The cossettes gothrough a large tank called a diffuser whereraw juice is extracted. Here’s how:

•The cossettes are gently lifted from the bot-tom to the top of the diffuser as hot waterwashes over them absorbing the sugar. Afterthe sugar laden raw juice is drawn off, the beetpulp is left behind. This pulp is processed sepa-rately into pellets for livestock feed and otherproducts.

•The juice is then filtered leaving a goldenlight brown clarified thin juice. This juice isboiled under vacuum where much of the wateris evaporated, forming a thicker juice similarto pancake syrup.

•After a second filtration to ensure that allnon-sugar materials are removed, the juicegoes to the boiling pans. Once again the juiceis boiled under vacuum and crystals begin to

form. The resulting sugar crystal and syrupmix is called massecuite.

•The massecuite is then sent to centrifuges forseparation. By spinning rapidly in a perforatedcylindrical basket, the syrup is thrown offthrough the screen holes. Clean hot water isused to wash the sugar, producing pure whitesugar crystals.

•The damp crystals are dried with filtered airin a rotating drum granulator and the driedsugar passes over screens which separate thevarious sizes of sugar crystals. The productsare then packaged and shipped to grocerystores and food manufacturers.

Sugar Sweet by NatureThe sugar that results from sugar cane andsugar beet processing is the same sucrose thatis found naturally in the original plants and infruits and vegetables. The raw sugar color isremoved by physical separation of plant mate-rials and by carbon filters which absorb coloredimpurities. Since the pure sugar crystals arenaturally colorless, no bleaching or whiteningis necessary. A byproduct of the cane and beetsugar refining process is molasses which has amultitude of uses. Molasses is an importantfeed stock in the production of antibiotics, bak-ers yeast, rum and fuel alcohol, as well as ananimal feed supplement.

The Sweet StorySugar is an important source of carbohydrate,contains no fat or cholesterol, and at 15 calo-ries a teaspoon is kind to the waistline espe-cially when combined with low-fat foods. Sugaris listed by the Food and Drug Administration(FDA) as GRAS (Generally Recognized AsSafe).

Sugar plays an important part in making goodfoods taste even better and has many function-al attributes in food preparation. In addition toits role as a flavor enhancer, sugar can act as apreservative, a bulking agent, a balancingagent, and a fermentation aid. It is sugar thathelps bread to rise, heightens flavor and pre-serves fruit in jams and jellies, providessmooth texture to candies and sauces, and bal-ances the tart flavors of other ingredients inmany main dish recipes.

Questions Most Frequently Asked AboutSugar

1. What nutritional impact does whitesugar have on my diet?White sugar is pure sucrose, a carbohydrate.Carbohydrates provide energy, contain no fat,and like protein contribute 4 calories per gramin your diet (as opposed to the 9 calories pergram contributed by fat).Your body treatssucrose like any other carbohydrate – it is con-verted into glucose and used by the cells forenergy.

2. Are some sugar products more or lessrefined than others?All sugar products on the market are refined.In addition to traditional light and dark brownsugar and pure white granulated sugar, somemanufacturers produce lightly colored sugars(golden or tan) for specialty uses. Consumersugar products range from about 96% sucrose(brown sugar) to 99.9% sucrose (white granu-lated sugar). Turbinado sugar is a light tanwashed raw sugar product available in someareas. Demerara sugar is a golden colored spe-cialty sugar product. These products undergorefining to separate sucrose from the plantmaterial.

3.What is brown sugar?Brown sugar is sugar crystals in a speciallyprepared molasses syrup with controlled natu-ral flavor and color components. A number ofsugar refiners make brown sugar by preparingand boiling a special syrup containing thesecomponents until brown sugar crystals form.Others produce brown sugar by blending a spe-cial molasses syrup with white sugar crystals.

4. Does sugar contain preservatives orother additives?No. Sugar is – pure sucrose. It contains nopreservatives or additives of any kind.

5. What quality controls are in place atthe sugar cane refinery or sugar beet pro-cessing plant?Plenty. Samples of the sugar are examinedfrom start to finish. Rigid standards are main-tained by testing at each stage of the manufac-turing process. Testing begins when the rawsugar (from sugar cane) or the sugar beets

arrive at the refineries or processing plants.The initial tests are for purity and sucrose con-tent. Then a battery of tests are continuallyrun to ensure proper pH balance, temperature,color, and consistency as the sugar solutionmakes its way through the facility. Equipmentand filtering materials are also monitoredaround the clock to ensure that they are work-ing efficiently. Because it’s 99.9% pure sucrose,refined sugar is one of the highest qualityproducts found in your grocery store.

6. What happens to the materials left overfrom sugar processing ?Many of the materials are recycled and reused.The plant matter from which the sugar isextracted is reused. The sugar cane stalkresidue, called bagasse, often is used as a fuelto run the cane factory. Most sugar cane millsand refineries produce their own electricityand some even supply power to nearby towns.The beet residue, or pulp, is generally used foranimal feed or further processed for use asfiber or other products. Molasses, used by dis-tillers, bakers, pharmaceutical companies andothers, is recycled through the beet sugar andcane sugar refining process an average of fourtimes to extract the maximum amount ofsucrose. Carbon chips, used in filtration, arerecharged (revivified) and reused, too. In addi-tion, much of the water removed along the waystill contains sucrose (called sweetwater) so itis pumped back into the stations to be usedagain. Little is wasted in sugar refining.

For more information on the naturalgoodness of sugar contact the Sugar Association.

www.sugar.org