Sugar products

We will defer the discussion of the structures of these carbohydrates to Chapter 3, the section on the formation of saccharides, after we have further discussed the intramolecular reactions of pentoses and hexoses in Chapters 2 and 3. 

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World sugar production, 10 t U.S. sugar prdn, 10 t World sugar consumption, 10 t... 

Ash and Inorganic Constituents. Ash may be measured gravimetdcaHy by incineration in the presence of sulfudc acid or, more conveniendy, by conductivity measurement. The gravimetric result is called the sulfated ash. The older carbonate ash method is no longer in use. Ash content of sugar and sugar products is approximated by solution conductivity measurements using standardized procedures and conversion factors. 

Color. The visual color, from white to dark brown, of sugar and sugar products is used as a general indication of quaUty and degree of refinement. Standard methods are described for the spectrophotometric deterrnination of sugar color that specify solution concentration, pH, filtration procedure, and wavelength of deterrnination. Color or visual appearance may also be assessed by reflectance measurements. 

Until a few hundred years ago, sugar was strictiy a luxury item. Queen Elizabeth I is credited with putting it on the table in the now familiar sugarbowl, but it was so expensive that it was used only on the tables of royalty. Sugar production reached large volume at a reasonable price only by the eighteenth century. 

Table 8. Cane Sugar Production, World and Selected Countries, 1(P t...

Figures in parentheses represent percent of total cane and beet sugar production.

Sugar can, the report concluded, be a cause of dental cavities rinsing the mouth with water after consuming a sugar product reduces this risk considerably. Dental cavities appear to be the only disease for which sucrose could be a cause. 

Sugar production costs energy, labor, and materials... 

Fig. 8. Typical value chain for 1 ha U.S. beet sugar production. See text.

The effect of World War 11 was very drastically felt in the sugar industry. Raw materials, machine parts, and maintenance items needed to maintain sugar processing were diverted to the war industry. Many sugar industry experts were conscripted into the armed forces. In the European theater of war, factories and agriculture were destroyed. At the end of World War 11 sugar production barely totalled 19,162,000 t/yr. 

Fig. 1. U.S. sweetener consumption, 1980—1992, where represents sucrose ( ), com sweeteners and ( ), noncalotic sweeteners. In each country of the modem world, sugar production and trade play major social, pohtical, and economical roles. In order to regulate and protect export, import, stocks, subsidies, tariffs, etc, an enormous number of laws have been enacted and agreements concluded on sugar, both domestically and internationally. Also, insofar as sugar is a basic staple for a large population, each country keeps a watchhil eye on sugar production, consumption, and price, which vary widely from country to country, as shown in Table 2 (7,8). Table 2. World Sugar Production, Consumption, and Retail Prices, 1993-1995 ...

Total sugar products are also produced by dehydrating hydroly2ate to a mixture of crystals and amorphous glass. This product is not produced in significant quantities in the United States or Europe but is popular in Japan and Korea where it represents 40—50% of total crystalline dextrose sold (14). 

R. A. Lloyd and. P. Harris, Wood Hydrolysis for Sugar Production, Report 2029, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Eorest Service, Eorest Products Laboratory, Madison, Wise., 1955. 

Continuous crystallizers find widespread application for the production of bulk chemicals such as fertilizers, fibre intermediates, salts and sugars. Production rates are typically 100 kTe/yr, or more with vessel capacities typically exceeding 20 m. Typical continuous crystallizers are depicted in Figure 9.18 and are described in more detail in Chapter 3. 

FlC. I.—Typical process flowchart for beet sugar production. Note Variations occur from company to company extensive recycling is not shown. 

The literature on sucrose loss in manufacture is extensive, but not all studies have been conducted on the principles of sound scientific method. An example from the literature of a study with questionable results is a report by Cecil,62 on the effect of pH on sucrose loss during boiling in the open-pan sulfitation (OPS) process. The OPS process is used in some tropical sugar cane growing areas to produce small amounts of a sugar product known as gur, panela, or piloncillo for local consumption. Juice (massecuite from Kenyan OPS mill diluted to 20... 

OPEN PAN SULFITATION (OPS) A sugar cane mill process wherein sugar solutions are concentrated by boiling in an open pan at atmospheric pressure, rather than under a vacuum, and bleached (see SULFITATION) to produce a white sugar product. 

POL The value determined by direct or single polarization of the normal weight of a sugar product or process stream in a polarimeter (saccharimeter). The normal weight (26 g in a 100-mL aqueous solution) of pure sucrose reads 100% or 100° pol in a polarimeter calibrated for sucrose measurement with a standard quartz plate. 

SUGAR REFINERY A processing facility in which nonsugar impurities are removed from raw sugar to produce a variety of sugar products. 

P. M. Silin, Technology of Beet-sugar Production and Refining, Published for the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the National Science Foundation, Washington, DC by the Israel Program for Scientific Translations (1964). 

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