category: food/groceries: sugar
Beet Sugar,
de.: Rübenzucker
Beet sugar is produced from
sugar beets.
Their roots are is high in nutrients, contains up to 22 percent of
sugar
and is commercially grown all over Europe.
Production of beet sugar
Sugar beets are harvested in September. They are washed and sliced into thin
strips called cossettes. Then these cossettes are warmed in so-called
diffusers with hot water.
When the beets reach about 70 °C, sugar dissolves from the
cells. The raw juice is then separated from the pulp.
The raw juice contains other soluble matters besides sugar,
which are unwanted in the finished product.
Minerals,
different
acids,
invert sugar
and
proteins
are among them. To remove those non-sugar matters
lime and carbon dioxide are added to the raw juice. This treatment
precipitates particles that can now be filtered from the juice.
A clear, light golden sugar solution called thin juice
with a sugar content of up to 16% and calcium carbonate are left.
The thin juice is then thickened in several stages of evaporation, until a
golden brown thick juice with a sugar content of 67% is derived.
This thick juice is seeded with fine sugar crystals and heated at a
temperature of 75 °C until the fine crystals have grown to large golden
sugar crystals. These crystals are still covered with syrup. This mixture of
syrup and crystals is called magma by experts.
The magma is centrifuged with steam to separate the crystals from the
syrup. The sugar obtained is called
raw sugar
and has a yellow to brown colour. To produce white
refined sugar,
this raw sugar is dissolved and the obtained pure sugar
solution is crystallized again. This last crystallization process is
repeated until white sugar of good quality forms.
Dissolving and crystallizing again is called refining,
the finished sugar is therefore called refined sugar.
By-products of the sugar production are used for other purposes:
The pressed and dried pulp of the sugar beets is sold as
animal feed. Calcium carbonate from clearing the juice is an excellent
and cheap fertilizer.
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