Refined Sugar Production

The "word refining" means to remove by a purification procedure, impurities or positive coarseness’s. Sugar refining is the procedure of extracting out the sugar (sucrose) from the plant materials and then removing other unwanted materials from the extracted raw sugar. These materials can include remaining stalk fibres, insect parts, molds, soil, waxes and bacteria.

Table sugar comes from two primary sources: sugar cane (60%) and sugar beets (40%). Sugar cane grows in tropical and sub-tropical areas while tuberous white bulbs, sugar beets that are members of the common red beet family that are grown-up in temperate climates. The plants comprise juices from which sugar crystals, molasses and syrups are made.

Sugar cane and beets are subjected to the same refining processes and produce equal products. In the repeated procedures of washing, boiling, centrifuging, refining and drying, almost all of the plant’s nutritious elements are lost. What leftovers in the raw sugar product is sucrose which is 95% along with nutritionally insignificant minerals. "Raw Sugar" is not only a raw or natural product at all, but is the extremely nutritionally depleted, refined, 95% sucrose product already it is even more refined. To produce the white crystals we call table sugar, bleaching agents such as carbon dioxide and lime are added. The sugar is then more "purified" (refined) and whitened by being filtered in a water-added liquid state through beef bone char. This procedure removes even more minerals. Sucrose in its totally refined phase is more familiarly called the table sugar. "Pure" sugar refers to the chemical clarity, devoid of all nutritious and other elements, and not to a healthful quality.

The completely refined white sugar product is now over 99.9% sucrose and for all practical purposes contains no nutritional elements such as minerals, vitamins, fibres or proteins. This accounts for terms such as "junk food" and "empty calories".

Molasses is a by-product of sugar refining a sweet thickened liquid obtained from the second extraction; and black-strap molasses in the liquid left after the third extraction. Light and dark brown sugars are simple refined table sugar to which is added 12-13% molasses. Confectioner's sugar (powdered sugar) is pulverized white table sugar.

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