Sugar and Its Byproducts: Key Points

Sugar

  • Informal term for edible crystalline carbohydrates (sucrose, lactose, fructose).

  • Primarily refers to sucrose from sugar cane and sugar beet.

  • Brazil has the highest per capita production.

  • Sugar and starch cause blood glucose to rise at similar rates.

  • Excessive calories from sugar can lead to obesity, increasing diabetes risk.

  • Sugars like sucrose contribute to tooth decay.

Sugar Production By-products

  • Molasses: Contains about 50% sugar, used in fermentation for alcohol, yeasts, citric acid, etc.

    • Analytical details include water content (78-80%), total sugar (44-48%), and pH (7.2-8.5).

  • Fresh Pulp: From beet remnants after sugar removal, used as cattle feed.

  • Dry pulp (Sugar-pie): Fresh pulp dried and used as high-quality cattle feed (often in pellet form).

    • Analytical Details of Sugar Beet Dried Pulp

      • Moisture: 9-14%

      • Dry Matter: 88-91%

      • Sucrose: 6-11%

Jaggery

  • Traditional unrefined sugar consumed in Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean.

  • Concentrated cane juice without separating molasses and crystals.

  • Contains up to 50% sucrose, 20% invert sugars, and moisture; remainder is insoluble matter.

Molasses

  • Viscous byproduct of sugar cane or sugar beet processing.

  • Quality depends on sugar cane/beet maturity, sugar extraction amount, and extraction method.

Rapadura

  • Portuguese name for sugarcane juice, used as sweetener or candy in Latin America and the Caribbean.

  • Dried sugarcane juice in brick form, produced on-site at plantations.

  • Rich in dietary iron

Rum

  • Distilled alcoholic beverage made from sugarcane by-products (molasses, juice).

  • Production mainly in the Caribbean and parts of Central and South America.

  • Light rums for cocktails; golden and dark rums for drinking straight or cooking.

Syrup

  • Thick, viscous liquid with dissolved sugars, little tendency to crystallize.

  • Viscosity from hydrogen bonds between sugar and water.

  • Table syrup: water + large amount of dissolved sugar, heated to supersaturate.

Rock Candy

  • Confectionery mineral composed of large sugar crystals grown from supersaturated solution on a string or stick.

By-Products of Sugarbeet

  • Beet Pulp: Ideal cattle foodstuff; can produce industrial pectin or dietary fiber (cellulose).

    • Bagasse: Equivalent of pulp in sugarcane production. High calorific value (4,000 kcal/kilo), used as fuel and in production of wax, paper, and insulation.

  • Slime: Result of filtering, used as calcium fertilizer.

  • Beet Molasses: Non-crystallizable substance (50% sugar), found in animal feeds, used in baker's yeast, amino acids, citric acid, and alcohol production.

  • Vinasse: Residual product after molasses extraction, rich in nitrogen, used in high-quality flour for animal feed.

  • Alcohol: Derived from sugar beet juice or beet molasses.

    • 1 tonne of sugar beets yields an average 90 to 100 litres of alcohol.

    • 1 tonne of molasses yields approximately 300 litres of alcohol.