A unit used to express the concentration of solids in aqueous sugar solutions. For example, 60 degrees Brix sugar solution contains 60% by weight of sugar.

Fiber is the cane plant’s vegetable skeleton in which juice is stored and through which plant food, dissolved in water, is distributed throughout the plant. In the milling process, the fiber cells are ruptured, thus freeing the juice. The fiber content of sugar cane varies according to variety. The normal range is 10% to 16%. A medium and consistent fiber content is desirable in commercial varieties.

In clarifying cane juice, the insoluble matter extracted from the juice forms a mud, which is removed from the clarifiers, filtered and washed to recover the sugar it contains. Filter mud consists of 25% solids and 75% water. The solids consist of mainly field soil, fiber, calcium phosphate, denatured protein and a small amount of sugar.

The black syrup, commonly known as molasses or ‘C’ syrup, remaining after the sugar syrup has been boiled and passed through the centrifugal for the last item in a mill or refinery. The sugar it contains cannot be removed economically. A typical analysis of final molasses includes sucrose (34.1%), reducing sugars (16.5%), ash (11.3%), water (21.8%) and various sugar, gums and acids (16.3%). The ash includes calcium, magnesium, potassium, silicon, iron, and phosphorous and other elements in the form of inorganic salts.

A sugar, which occurs in, fruit, the nectar of flowers, honey, and in cane juice and sugar products. It is formed in equal quantity with glucose when sucrose is inverted. In solution, it rotates polarized light to the left. It has the chemical composition C6H12O6.

A sugar, which occurs naturally in grapes, honey, sweet fruits, and in cane juice and sugar products. It can also be made from wheat. In the human body, sucrose is converted into glucose and fructose before being used to provide energy. It has the chemical composition C6H12O6 and may also be called dextrose.

High Fructose Corn Syrup. This is the most common name for starch-based fructose/glucose syrups. Corn is the starch base of these syrups. Other suitable but not as widely used starch sources include rice, wheat and tapioca. In Europe HFCS is referred to as iso-glucose.

The conversion of sucrose, with the addition of water, into a mixture of equal amounts of glucose and fructose. The action is one of hydrolysis and may be carried out by the action of the enzyme invertase, or by heating with dilute acids. The liquid product from this process is called invert sugar.

Cane juice consists of water with sugar and other substances dissolved in it and a proportion of insoluble particles suspended in it.

The mixture of crystals and syrup produced by crystallization in a vacuum pan. The term is French for ‘cooked mass’.

A measure of the commercial value of raw sugar for refining purposes. Net titer provides a method for expressing different sugar at a standard value and is used of statistical and payment purposes. The net titer of a sugar is calculated by subtracting the reducing sugar content and five times the ash content from the polarization of the sugar.

In some areas of the world sugar cane juice is merely evaporated to produce a crude raw sugar; the sugar crystals are not removed from the mother syrup in centrifugals. The sugar is generally consumed where it is produced. Some of these sugars are known as Jaggery, Gur, Piloncilo and Muscovado. Jaggery and Gur are made in India by evaporating cane juice in an open pan. The juice is evaporated to almost dryness and is then cast in open moulds or loaves. A large amount of sugar consumed in India is in this form.

An estimate of the sucrose content of sugar. Sugar of 98 degrees pol would contain about 98% sucrose.

Cane, which grows from the stools, left in the ground after crop has been harvested.

The sugar crystals separated from massecuite in a centrifugal in a raw sugar mill. Australian raw sugar is usually in two grades, either about 98.8% or 97.7% sucrose. Sucrose content is varied to satisfy the requirements of customers. Australian raw sugar is commonly made up of 98.8% sucrose, 0.22% reducing sugars, 0.37% other organic matter, 0.3% ash and 0.31% water. Australian refined sugar is made up of 99.93% sucrose, 0.01% reducing sugars, 0.01% other organic matter, 0.01%ash and 0.04% water.

Reducing sugars are those, which have the ability to chemically reduce (withdraw oxygen) certain other chemical compounds. In milling and refining, reducing sugars (mainly glucose and fructose) are regarded as impurities.

Sugar which has passed through the refining process (involving removal of impurities) making it more suitable for direct human consumption or use in the manufacture of other foods. Also known as white sugar.

Commonly referred to as sugar. A carbohydrate having the chemical composition C12H22O11. It comprises two simple sugars - glucose and fructose.

In refineries, syrup refers to the less pure solution, which is spun off crystals in centrifugals. In the milling process syrup is the name of the product stream after it leaves the evaporators and before it enters the pans.

Cylindrical steel vessel in which a steam heated surface is used to boil sugar syrups under partial vacuum at relatively low temperatures.

Harvesting
Sugar cane is harvested by chopping down the stems but leaving the roots so that it re-grows in time for the next crop. Harvest times tend to be during the dry season and the length of the harvest ranges from as little as 2 ½ months up to 11 months. The cane is taken to the factory, often by truck.

The first stage of processing is the extraction of the cane juice. In many factories the cane is crushed in a series of large roller mills: similar to a mangle [wringer] which was used to squeeze the water out of clean washing a century ago. The sweet juice comes gushing out and the cane fibre is carried away for use in the boilers. In other factories a diffuser is used as is described for beet sugar manufacture. Either way the juice is pretty dirty: the soil from the fields, some small fibres and the green extracts from the plant are all mixed in with the sugar.
Evaporation
The factory can clean up the juice quite easily with slaked lime (a relative of chalk) which settles out a lot of the dirt so that it can be sent back to the fields. Once this is done, the juice is thickened up into a syrup by boiling off the water using steam in a process called evaporation. Sometimes the syrup is cleaned up again but more often it just goes on to the crystal-making step without any more cleaning. The evaporation is undertaken in order to improve the energy efficiency of the factory.

The syrup is placed into a very large pan for boiling, the last stage. In the pan even more water is boiled off until conditions are right for sugar crystals to grow. You may have done something like this at school but probably not with sugar because it is difficult to get the crystals to grow well. In the factory the workers usually have to throw in some sugar dust to initiate crystal formation. Once the crystals have grown the resulting mixture of crystals and mother liquor is spun in centrifuges to separate the two, rather like washing is spin dried. The crystals are then given a final dry with hot air before being stored ready for despatch.

The final raw sugar forms a sticky brown mountain in the store and looks rather like the soft brown sugar found in domestic kitchens. It could be used like that but usually it gets dirty in storage and has a distinctive taste which most people don't want. That is why it is refined when it gets to the country where it will be used. Additionally, because one cannot get all the sugar out of the juice, there is a sweet by-product made: molasses. This is usually turned into a cattle food or is sent to a distillery where alcohol is made.