In order to understand what sugar is made of in our country, it is worth looking at those regulatory documents that regulate its production. First of all, it is GOST No. 52678-2006, approved in 2006 (December 27). According to its provisions, various types of sugar (including raw, granulated sugar, icing sugar and refined sugar) are released from sugar beets.
Sugar beet is a root crop that can be grown in the climatic conditions of Russia, unlike palm trees, sugar cane, certain varieties of sorghum and millet, from which sweet extractives are obtained in other parts of the planet (Southeast Asia, China, Cuba, Japan) .
To find out what sugar is made of, you need to broadly consider the production chain of this product. In the first stages, the roots of sugar beets (by the way, they are light, not red) are washed, weighed and chopped to the state of the chips. Then in the diffuser juice is extracted from the raw material using hot water. It contains about 15% sucrose. Juice is separated from the so-called pulp, which is transmitted to livestock feed.
Many, thinking about what sugar is made of, do not even realize how many additional components are involved in this process. For example, the resulting beet juice is mixed with milk of lime, then, after precipitation of impurities, carbon dioxide is passed through the solution for filtration (sometimes the mixture is filtered through ion-exchange resins).
What sugar is made of after cleaning is similar to sugar syrup. It is subsequently evaporated, treated with sulphurous gas and filtered again. At this stage, the solution already contains about 60% sugar. After that, the raw materials must be crystallized in vacuum devices at a temperature of about 75 degrees Celsius. The resulting mixture is passed through centrifuges to separate sucrose from molasses, resulting in crystalline sugar.
How is refined sugar made? A method for drying and pressing sugar syrup, which is subsequently cut into cubes, is usually used here. A more complex and costly method allows the initial pouring of syrup into forms into which refined sugar is added. The raw material dries in forms, is extracted and separated.
Today on the shelves you can find quite expensive brown sugar. Its color is determined by the fact that the components of cane molasses are not completely separated from sugar raw materials, which gives it an additional aroma and color. How is sugar made from cane? The production cycle of this product is similar to the sugar beet cycle. But there are certain features. For example, the juice in the first stage is squeezed using rollers, and the processing is characterized by the use of a small amount of lime (up to 3% by weight of beets and up to 0.07% by weight of stems).
Which sugar is more healthy, everyone decides for himself. Reed is exposed to less chemical attack, which, on the one hand, is good, but on the other, it can produce undesirable impurities. In addition, brown sugar is considered more high-calorie than white.