What is sugar, formula and composition of food sugar. What is brown and white sugar made of? Harm of sugars, properties, where they are used, how to store. What is sugar made from?

The content of the article

SUGAR, from a chemical point of view, any substance from a large group of water-soluble carbohydrates, usually with a low molecular weight and a more or less pronounced sweet taste. These are mainly monosaccharides ( simple sugars) and disaccharides, the molecule of which consists of two monosaccharide residues. The former include glucose (sometimes called dextrose or grape sugar) and fructose (fruit sugar, levulose); to the second - lactose ( milk sugar), maltose (malt sugar) and sucrose (cane or beet sugar). In everyday life, however, only ordinary sugar is called sugar. food sweetener- sucrose; it is she who will be considered in this article.

Sugar (sucrose) is a sweet crystalline substance extracted mainly from sugar cane or sugar beet juice. In its pure (refined) form, sugar is white, and its crystals are colorless. The brownish color of many of its varieties is due to the admixture of various amounts of molasses - condensed vegetable juice that envelops the crystals.

Sugar is a high-calorie food; his the energy value- OK. 400 kcal per 100 g. It is easily digested and easily absorbed by the body, i.е. it is a fairly concentrated and quickly mobilized source of energy.

Application.

Sugar is an important ingredient various dishes, drinks, bakery and confectionery. It is added to tea, coffee, cocoa; it is the main component of sweets, icings, creams and ice creams. Sugar is used in meat preservation, leather dressing and in the tobacco industry. It serves as a preservative in jams, jellies and other fruit products.

Sugar is also important for the chemical industry. Thousands of derivatives are obtained from it, used in the most different areas including the production of plastics, pharmaceuticals, fizzy drinks and frozen foods.

Sources.

Several hundred different sugars are known in nature. Each green plant forms certain substances belonging to this group. In the process of photosynthesis, glucose is first formed from atmospheric carbon dioxide and water obtained mainly from the soil under the influence of solar energy, and then it is converted into other sugars.

AT different parts light as sweeteners other than cane and beet sugar some other products are also used, such as corn syrup, maple syrup, honey, sorghum, palm and malt sugar. Corn syrup is a very viscous, almost colorless liquid obtained directly from cornstarch. The Aztecs, who used this sweet syrup, made it from corn in much the same way that sugar is made from cane today. Molasses is much inferior to refined sugar in terms of sweetness, however, it makes it possible to regulate the crystallization process in the manufacture of sweets and is much cheaper than sugar, therefore it is widely used in confectionery business. Honey different high content fructose and glucose, more expensive than sugar, and it is added to some products only in cases where it is required to give them special taste. The same is the case with maple syrup, which is valued primarily for its specific flavor.

Sugar syrup is obtained from the stalks of bread sorghum, which has been used in China since ancient times. Sugar from it, however, has never been refined so well that it could successfully compete with beet or cane. India is practically the only country where palm sugar is commercially produced, but cane sugar this country produces much more. In Japan, malt sugar, made from starchy rice or millet, has been used as a sweetener for over 2,000 years. This substance (maltose) can also be obtained with the help of yeast from ordinary starch. It is much inferior to sucrose in sweetness, but is used in the manufacture bakery products and various kinds baby food.

Prehistoric man satisfied his need for sugar through honey and fruits. Some flowers probably served the same purpose, the nectar of which contains a small amount of sucrose. In India, more than 4,000 years ago, a kind of raw sugar was mined from the flowers of the maduka tree ( Madhuca). Africans in the Cape Colony used the view Melianthus major, and the drills in South Africa – Protea cynaroides. In the Bible, honey is mentioned quite often, and “sweet cane” is mentioned only twice, from which we can conclude that it was honey that served as the main sweetener in biblical times; this, by the way, is also confirmed by historical evidence, according to which sugar cane began to be grown in the Middle East in the first centuries of our era.

For a not too sophisticated taste, refined cane and beet sugar are almost indistinguishable. Raw sugar, an intermediate product of production containing an admixture of vegetable juice, is another matter. Here the difference is very noticeable: raw cane sugar is quite suitable for consumption (if, of course, obtained in adequate sanitary conditions), while beet sugar tastes unpleasant. It differs in taste and molasses ( feed molasses) is an important by-product sugar production: cane in England is readily eaten, and beet is not good for food.

Production.

If the refining of beet sugar is carried out directly at sugar beet factories, then the purification of cane sugar, in which only 96-97% of sucrose, requires special refineries, where contaminants are separated from raw sugar crystals: ash, water and components, united by the general concept of "non-sugar ". The latter include scraps of plant fibers, wax that covered the stalk of the reed, protein, small quantities cellulose, salts and fats. It is only thanks to the huge scale of production of refined cane and beet sugar that this product is so cheap today.

Consumption.

According to statistics, the consumption of refined sugar in the country is directly proportional to per capita income. The leaders here include, for example, Australia, Ireland and Denmark, where over 45 kg of refined sugar per person per year, while in China - only 6.1 kg. In many tropical countries where sugarcane is grown, this figure is much lower than in the United States (41.3 kg), but people there have the opportunity to consume sucrose not in its pure form, but in a different form, usually in fruits and sugary drinks.

CANE SUGAR

Plant.

Sugarcane ( Saccharum officinarum) is a perennial, very tall herbaceous species of the cereal family, cultivated in tropical and subtropical regions for its sucrose content, as well as some by-products of sugar production. The plant resembles bamboo: its cylindrical stems, often reaching a height of 6–7.3 m and a thickness of 1.5–8 cm, grow in bunches. Sugar is obtained from their juice. At the nodes of the stems are buds, or "eyes", which develop into short side shoots. From them, cuttings are used to propagate cane. Seeds are formed in apical inflorescences-panicles. They are used for breeding new varieties and only in exceptional cases as seed. The plant needs a lot of sun, heat and water, as well as fertile soil. That is why sugarcane is cultivated only in areas with a hot and humid climate.

Under favorable conditions, it grows very quickly, its plantations before harvesting look like impenetrable jungles. In Louisiana (USA), sugar cane matures in 6-7 months, in Cuba it takes a year, and in Hawaii - 1.5-2 years. To ensure the maximum content of sucrose in the stems (10-17% of the mass), the crop is harvested as soon as the plant stops growing in height. If harvesting is done by hand (using long machete knives), the shoots are cut down close to the ground, after which the leaves are removed and the stems are cut into short pieces that are convenient for processing. Manual harvesting is used where labor is cheap or site conditions prevent efficient use of machines. On large plantations, the technique is usually used, after burning the lower tier of vegetation. Fire destroys the bulk of the weeds without damaging the sugar cane, and the mechanization of the process significantly reduces the cost of production.

Story.

The right to be considered the birthplace of sugar cane is contested by two regions - the fertile valleys in the north-east of India and the islands of Polynesia in the South Pacific. However, botanical studies, ancient literary sources and etymological data speak in favor of India. Many woody wild-growing varieties of sugarcane found there do not differ in their main features from modern cultural forms. Sugarcane is mentioned in the Laws of Manu and other sacred books of the Hindus. The word "sugar" itself comes from the Sanskrit sarkara (gravel, sand or sugar); centuries later, the term entered Arabic as sukkar, into medieval Latin as succarum.

From India the sugar cane culture between 1800 and 1700 B.C. entered China. This is evidenced by several Chinese sources, who report that the Chinese people who lived in the Ganges valley taught the Chinese to get sugar by digesting its stems. From China, ancient navigators probably brought it to the Philippines, Java, and even Hawaii. When Spanish sailors arrived in the Pacific many centuries later, sugarcane had already grown feral on many Pacific islands.

Apparently, the first mention of sugar in ancient times dates back to the time of Alexander the Great's campaign in India. In 327 BC one of his commanders, Nearchus, reported: “They say that in India there is a reed growing that gives honey without the help of bees; as if from it you can also make an intoxicating drink, although there are no fruits on this plant. Five hundred years later, Galen, the chief medical authority of the ancient world, recommended "sakcharon from India and Arabia" as a remedy for diseases of the stomach, intestines, and kidneys. The Persians, too, although much later, adopted from the Hindus the habit of eating sugar, and at the same time did a lot to improve the methods of its purification. As early as the 700s, Nestorian monks in the Euphrates valley were successfully making white sugar using ashes to clean it.

The Arabs, who spread from the 7th to the 9th centuries. their possessions in the Middle East, North Africa and Spain, brought the culture of sugar cane to the Mediterranean. A few centuries later, the crusaders who returned from the Holy Land introduced the whole world to sugar. Western Europe. As a result of the collision of these two great expansions, Venice, which found itself at the crossroads of the trade routes of the Muslim and Christian worlds, eventually became the center of the European sugar trade and remained so for more than 500 years.

At the beginning of the 15th century Portuguese and Spanish sailors introduced sugarcane culture to the islands of the Atlantic Ocean. His plantations appeared first in Madeira, the Azores and the Cape Verde Islands. In 1506, Pedro de Atienza ordered the planting of sugar cane in Santo Domingo (Haiti) - thus this culture penetrated the New World. In just some 30 years after its appearance in the Caribbean, it spread there so widely that it became one of the main ones in the West Indies, which is now called the "sugar islands". The role of sugar produced here grew rapidly with the increase in demand for it in countries Northern Europe, especially after the Turks captured Constantinople in 1453 and the importance of the Eastern Mediterranean as a supplier of sugar fell.

With the spread of sugar cane in the West Indies and the penetration of its culture into South America, more and more labor was required for its cultivation and processing. The natives, who survived the invasion of the first conquerors, turned out to be of little use for exploitation, and the planters found a way out in the importation of slaves from Africa. Ultimately, sugar production became inextricably linked to the slave system and the bloody riots it generated that rocked the West Indies in the 18th and 19th centuries. In the early days, sugar cane presses were powered by oxen or horses. Later, in places blown by the trade winds, they were replaced by more efficient wind turbines. However, production as a whole was still quite primitive. After squeezing raw cane, the resulting juice was purified with lime, clay or ash, and then evaporated in copper or iron vats, under which a fire was built. Refining was reduced to the dissolution of the crystals, boiling the mixture and subsequent re-crystallization. Even in our time, the remains of stone millstones and abandoned copper vats remind in the West Indies of the past owners of the islands, who made their fortunes in this profitable trade. By the middle of the 17th century. Santo Domingo and Brazil became the main producers of sugar in the world.

Sugarcane first appeared on the territory of the modern United States in 1791 in Louisiana, where it was brought by the Jesuits from Santo Domingo. True, it was grown here at first mainly in order to chew sweet stems. However, forty years later, two enterprising colonists, Antonio Mendez and Etienne de Boret, established his plantations in what is now New Orleans, with the goal of producing refined sugar for sale. After de Boret's success in this business, other landowners followed suit, and sugar cane began to be cultivated throughout Louisiana.

In the future, the main events in the history of cane sugar come down to important improvements in the technology of its cultivation, mechanical processing and final purification of the product.

Recycling.

The cane is first crushed to facilitate further squeezing of juice from it. Then it goes to a three-roller squeezing press. Usually, the cane is pressed twice, wetting between the first and second time with water to dilute the sweet liquid contained in the pulp (this process is called maceration).

The resulting so-called. "diffusion juice" (usually gray or dark green) contains sucrose, glucose, gum, pectin substances, acids and all sorts of pollution. Methods for its purification over the centuries have changed little. Previously, the juice was heated in large vats over an open fire, and ash was added to remove "non-sugars"; now, to precipitate impurities, lime milk is used. Where sugar is produced for local consumption, the diffusion juice is treated with sulfur dioxide (sulfur dioxide) immediately before lime is added to speed up bleaching and purification. Sugar turns yellowish, i.e. not completely refined, but quite pleasant to the taste. In both cases, after adding lime, the juice is poured into a sump-illuminator and kept there at 110-116 ° C under pressure.

The next important step in the production of raw sugar is evaporation. The juice flows through pipes to evaporators, where it is heated by steam passing through a closed system of pipes. When the dry matter concentration reaches 40–50%, evaporation is continued in vacuum apparatuses. The result is a mass of sugar crystals suspended in thick molasses, the so-called. massecuite. The massecuite is centrifuged, removing molasses through the mesh walls of the centrifuge, in which only sucrose crystals remain. The purity of this raw sugar is 96–97%. The removed molasses (outflow of the massecuite) is boiled again, crystallized and centrifuged. The resulting second portion of raw sugar is somewhat less pure. Then another crystallization is carried out. The remaining edema often still contains up to 50% sucrose, but it is no longer able to crystallize due to the large amount of impurities. This product ("black molasses") goes to the USA mainly for livestock feed. In some countries, for example in India, where the soil is in dire need of fertilizers, the outflow of the massecuite is simply plowed into the ground.

Refining

its briefly boils down to the following. First, raw sugar is mixed with sugar syrup to dissolve the remaining molasses enveloping the crystals. The resulting mixture (affination massecuite) is centrifuged. The centrifuged crystals are washed with steam to give an off-white product. It is dissolved, turning into thick syrup, lime and phosphoric acid are added there so that the impurities float up in the form of flakes, and then filtered through bone char (a black granular material obtained from animal bones). The main task at this stage is the complete discoloration and deashing of the product. Refining 45 kg of dissolved raw sugar consumes 4.5 to 27 kg of bone charcoal. The exact ratio is not established, since the absorbency of the filter decreases as it is used. The resulting white mass is evaporated and, after crystallization, centrifuged, i.e. they treat it in much the same way as with sugar cane juice, after which the refined sugar is dried, removing the remains of water (approx. 1%) from it.

Production.

Major producers include Brazil, India, Cuba, as well as China, Mexico, Pakistan, USA, Thailand, Australia and the Philippines.

BEET SUGAR

Plant.

In sugar beet ( beta vulgaris) use a long, silvery-white root (from which sugar is obtained) and a rosette of leaves (tops), which serve as excellent fodder for livestock. The root in its thickest part reaches 10–15 cm in diameter, and its thin processes penetrate the soil to a depth of 90–120 cm. The average root weight is approx. 1 kg; up to 15% is sucrose in it, which corresponds to about 14 teaspoons of granulated sugar. Sugar beet is grown mainly in the temperate zone, and since each plant consumes an average of approx. 55 liters of water, the culture requires abundant watering. By the time of harvesting, the water content in the roots can reach 75-80%, and in the tops - 90%.

According to the efficiency of photosynthesis, i.e. converting solar energy and inorganic substances into nutritious organic substances, sugar beet occupies one of the first places among plants. Her origin is not exactly known. Scientists believe that in prehistoric times it was a wild annual in Southern Europe and North Africa. Later, having got into areas with a cooler climate, the sugar beet became a biennial, storing sugar in the root in the first year, and producing seeds in the second. Now it is harvested at the end of the first growing season, when the mass of the roots and their sugar content are maximum.

Story.

According to Spanish explorers, the Indians in the Santa Clara River Valley in what is now California made some kind of sweets from the juice of wild sugar beets. In Europe, the fact that beets contain sugar was already known in the 16th century, but it was not until 1747 that the German chemist A. Marggraf obtained crystalline sucrose from it. The most important event in the history of beet sugar took place in 1799, when laboratory experiments by F. Achard confirmed that the production of this product was justified from an economic point of view. As a result, as early as 1802 sugar-beet factories appeared in Silesia (Germany).

At the beginning of the 19th century during the Napoleonic Wars, the British fleet blocked the coast of France, and the import of sugar from the West Indies there was temporarily stopped. This forced Napoleon to turn to the German model and build a number of experimental beet sugar factories. In 1811, things were already well established: sugar beet crops occupied over 32,000 hectares, and refineries were operating throughout the country.

After the defeat of Napoleon, the European market was literally inundated with Caribbean sugar, and the newly emerged beet sugar industry began to decline. Interest in it, however, increased again during the reigns of Louis Philippe and Napoleon III, and since then it has been one of the important branches of the French economy.

In America, beet sugar was talked about in the 1830s. The association that arose in Philadelphia delegated its representatives to Europe to study its production. From 1838 to 1879, about 14 unsuccessful attempts were made in the United States to establish the production of beet sugar. The real disaster befell the Mormons in the 1850s when they bought $12,500 worth of equipment from France, shipped it to New Orleans, then up the Mississippi to Kansas, finally from there by oxen to Utah, but they launched it like that failed. Success was achieved by E. Dyer, who applied new production methods in California. Thanks to him, America's own sugar beet production arose. Since then, it has been continuously developed, and now the share of beet sugar is approx. 25% of all refined sugar produced in the USA.

Recycling.

Sugar beet - voluminous and perishable product, so processing plants are usually built near plantations. It takes approx. 27 kg of coal and 16 kg of lime and coke. The process consists of the stages already described: extraction, purification, evaporation and crystallization.

First, the beets are washed, and then cut into shavings, which are loaded into a diffuser, where the sugar is extracted from the plant mass hot water. The result is a "diffusion juice" containing 10 to 15% sucrose. The remaining beet pulp serves as an excellent fodder for livestock. Diffusion juice is mixed in a saturator with lime milk. Heavy impurities settle here. Carbon dioxide is then passed through the heated solution to cause the lime to bind the non-sugar. After filtering them, they get the so-called. "Pure Juice" Bleaching involves passing sulfur dioxide gas through it and then filtering it through Activated carbon. Excess water is removed by evaporation. The resulting liquid contains 50 to 65% sugar.

Crystallization is carried out in huge vacuum containers, sometimes as high as a two-story house. Its product - massecuite - is a mixture of molasses with sucrose crystals. These components are separated by centrifugation, and the resulting solid sugar is dried. Unlike cane, it does not require further refining and is suitable for consumption.

From molasses (the first runoff), a second, and then a third batch of already less pure crystals is obtained by evaporation. They are dissolved and refined.

Production.

The main producers are Russia, Germany, USA, France, Poland, China, Turkey and Italy. In Europe, almost all sugar is obtained from sugar beets. In the USA, the sugar beet harvest in 1991 was 24,982,000 tons; it is grown mainly in Minnesota, California, Idaho and North Dakota.

MAPLE SUGAR AND SYRUP

Maple syrup is brown in color, very sweet and has a strong, distinctive flavor that results from the reactions that occur during its manufacture. Maple sugar and syrup are produced almost exclusively in the northeastern United States, mainly in the states of Vermont and New York. Both sugar and syrup are obtained mainly from the apiary of black, red, silver and sugar maples growing in these areas. By itself, it does not have a special taste, but contains an average of 3% sucrose. One tree produces from 38 to 95 liters of apiary per year, from which 35 times less syrup is obtained.

American Indians added it instead of salt to cereals, soups, and even meat dishes. They also taught the collection and processing of maple apiary to European settlers who tried to drain birch and gray walnut for the same purpose. The first written mention of this product dates back to 1760; it follows that maples grow in Canada, "giving a large amount of useful refreshing juice" suitable for making special sugar. The Winnebag and Chippewa tribes supplied large quantities of it to the Northwest Fur Company. Most maple sugar and syrup were produced between 1850 and 1890. In the future, the role of these products has declined, mainly because cane sugar is much cheaper. Nowadays, maple syrup is valued only for its special flavor and is consumed mainly with waffles and pancakes.

The tapping is usually carried out from the end of February to the end of April; during this period, cold dry nights and sunny days contribute to sap flow. A hole 1.5 cm in diameter is drilled in a tree trunk to a depth of 5 cm and a wooden or metal groove is inserted into it, through which the juice flows into the trough. Since it can quickly ferment, the portions collected during the day are immediately sent for evaporation. Processing proceeds in general according to the same scheme as in the case of sugar cane, although the technology here is somewhat simpler.

I happened to visit a sugar factory, where I got acquainted with the process of making a product familiar to everyone - sugar.
Actually, it all starts with the entrance, where guests are first greeted by a gilded V.I. Lenin, somehow hinting with his gesture: “Comrade, look! Sweet there, for God's sake!
And most importantly, don't cheat. Sugar is really there, in commercial quantities.

Everyone knows that sugar cane does not grow in our country and sugar has to be extracted from beets, this not at all glamorous root crop.

Cars heavily loaded with beet are driven to the acceptance point

Weigh and then unload the contents of bodies and trailers into the bunker

It should be noted that the entire production process is automated, as evidenced by the presence of a variety of panels and consoles at all key points in the technological chain.

From the bunker, the root crops fall on the conveyor belt, which carries the raw materials into the dungeon.

It is clear that before using the beets, you need to clean it from the ground, tops, adhering stones, sand and other impurities - in finished product all this will not be able to get in anyway, but to spoil the equipment is easy. To do this, the beet, following the path of supply to the production, passes through various straw traps, stone traps, sand traps. For the final cleaning of beets from contamination, root crops pass through a beet washer.

The whole process is controlled by the operator. On the monitor on the right is a diagram of the processes taking place at the cleaning and washing area, which displays operational information. The monitor on the left displays a video from a camera installed above the belt conveyor, through which the washed raw materials go to the next section.

And here is the same conveyor that the camera is looking at. Clean root crops are sent to the beet cutter.

Beet roots are fed into the beet cutter hopper and carried inside the housing, where under the influence of centrifugal force they are pressed against the cutting edge of the knives, sliding along which the beet is gradually cut into beet shavings. It is problematic to observe the process itself, but the knives look like this:

The "sugar recoverability" depends very much on the quality of the chips. It should be of a certain thickness, with a smooth, crack-free surface.

The chips obtained at the previous stage are sent along the belt conveyor to the diffusion apparatus.
Inside the diffusion column there is a screw (such a thing as in a meat grinder), with the help of which the chips move at a certain speed from the bottom up. Opposite to the movement, water continuously flows through the column of chips from top to bottom. Passing through the crushed raw materials, the water dissolves the sugar in the beet chips and becomes saturated with it. The whole process takes place without air access and at a certain temperature. As a result of the process, juice saturated with sugar accumulates at the bottom of the column, and pulp (sugar-free beet chips) is unloaded from the upper part of the apparatus.

Freshly squeezed pulp enters the pulp dryer. This is a huge, continuously rotating drum, inside which the pulp is dried in a stream of hot gas.

Dried beet pulp granules are picked up by the air flow of a pneumatic conveyor and carried away through pipes to a warehouse for subsequent sale - the “squeezed out” beet cut is fed to livestock.

The juice obtained in the process of diffusion, in addition to the sucrose we need (that is, sugar), contains many different substances, united by the term “non-sugar”. All non-sugars, to a greater or lesser extent, interfere with the production of crystalline sugar and increase losses. useful product. And the next technological challenge is the removal of non-sugars from sugar solutions. Why use various physical and chemical processes.

The juice is mixed with milk of lime, heated, and the precipitate is precipitated. Predefinition, defecation (that's right, I didn't misheard and didn't make a seal - in Russian it's just cleansing), saturation and many other interesting terms. At one of the stages, the juice is filtered in such installations

Along the perimeter of the filtration apparatus one can see glass flasks through which the purified juice is driven.

The resulting juice is thickened by evaporation. The resulting syrup is boiled until it crystallizes. "Cooking" sugar is the most important operation in the preparation of a sweet product. In the photo - our guide and chief technologist at the control point of the boiling section

Before us is the heart of production - vacuum devices for boiling syrup. "Cooking" takes place in a rarefied atmosphere, due to which the syrup boils at 70 degrees Celsius. With more high temperatures the sugar will just burn. How it happens in a frying pan :) The control panel is visible on the left. At one point, one of them yelled a siren and turned on a red flasher, signaling the need for human intervention in the automated process. Immediately one of the workers appeared and the console fell silent with satisfaction.

The device can be "milked" a little and visually check the quality of the syrup.

The syrup on the glass slide crystallizes before our eyes. It's practically sugar!

Boiled syrup - massecuite, sent for centrifugation

In the centrifuge, all excess is separated from the massecuite and goes into a special collection under the installation. And on the walls of the drum there are crystals of granulated sugar. The following photos were taken within one minute and clearly show a trace of sugar.

Unloaded from centrifuges, wet granulated sugar is transported for drying

Drying plant. The drum is spinning. Sugar inside the drum is blown with hot air (more than 100 degrees).

After drying, the sugar is cooled to room temperature with continuous mixing in the same plant. At this time, you can get to it from the end and open a secret hatch!

The dryer drum rotates and the sugar is poured, cooling.

It's time to try finished products to taste! Sweet!

Dried and cooled granulated sugar is fed to the sieving machine. The photo does not convey movement, but the whole structure sways like a sieve in the hands of a grandmother :)

At the end of the sieving, the sugar is sent for packaging.

Unfortunately, at the packing station, I was asked not to shoot. Filming was allowed only after the end of the work shift and the stop of the conveyor.

The photo shows semi-automatic packing bins, next to which packers sit on benches. A bag is taken from the stack, put on the neck of the hopper, the dispenser pours 50 kg into the bag. After that, the conveyor belt shifts, the neck of the bag enters the “sewing machine”, which sews the bag and then the sewn bag goes to the warehouse along the conveyor belt.

The company also has an automatic packaging line, it is almost the same, only there are no packers. All the action takes place in a translucent tunnel, in fact, you can only see how the machine picks up a bag from a stack, puts it on the bell of the bunker, loads a portion granulated sugar, then sews up and sends to the finished product. For some reason, there were no photos of the process. Apparently he was hypnotized by self-propelled bags :)

That's all.

p.s. The production is very noisy, I did not catch much of what was said. So if I was not accurate in describing the technology and processes, do not blame me.

Its homeland is India, where sweet grains were obtained from the juice of some varieties of reed, which later became known as sugar.

Indian sugar was well known in ancient Rome. A sweet delicacy was brought to the Eternal City through the territory of Egypt, which is quite for a long time was part of the empire. Already closer to the sunset of Rome, sugar cane began to be cultivated in Sicily and in some regions of Southern Spain, but after the collapse of the empire, the cultivation of sugar cane did not receive further development.

Sugar was first brought to Russia around the 11th - 12th century. At that time, it cost absolutely incredible money and only the prince and his entourage could try it. However, over time, overseas sweets fell somewhat in price, and under Peter the Great, a "sugar chamber" appeared in Russia: they organized the import of raw materials from abroad and the production of sugar on the spot.

Started in 1809 new stage in the fate of sugar in Russia - work began on establishing the production of sugar from domestic raw materials. In this capacity, sugar beets acted.

Raw sugar

The oldest source of sugar is sugar cane. For the first time it began to be consciously cultivated in the Persian Gulf, from where it gradually spread first to Europe, and then to America.

By the time when sugar cane came to the American continent, sugar in Europe was already consumed very actively, and therefore its mass cultivation began, especially since the climate was very favorable for this. Attempts to cultivate cane in Europe gradually faded away: American sugar was, oddly enough, much cheaper.

It was only under Napoleon that they thought about getting sugar from the long-familiar and familiar beets. When almost all of continental Europe, except for Great Britain, was under his control, Napoleon decided to arrange a commercial blockade for the British. But he didn’t take into account (or, on the contrary, perfectly understood) that almost all the sugar that got to Europe was brought by merchant ships of the British fleet.

In order not to be completely without sugar, I had to look for its alternative sources. It turned out that beetroot fits perfectly, and even almost nothing had to be invented. Old work came in handy.

The history of these developments is as follows. In 1747, Andreas Marggraf found out that sugar, which had previously been obtained from sugar cane, was also found in beets. After a series of experiments, the scientist was able to determine that the sugar content in fodder beet is 1.3%. Breeders decided to increase this percentage and started breeding a special, sugar beet. To date, they have succeeded in this so much that varieties of modern beets already contain more than 20% of the required sugar.

Until 1801, all these discoveries were not in demand, and then one of Marggraf's students, whose name was Franz Karl Achard, devoted his life to the problem of obtaining beet sugar. It was he who, back in 1801, equipped the first factory in Europe for processing beets for sugar in Lower Silesia. In general, in 1807, when Napoleon set up a trade blockade, Europe was not left without sugar.

Raw material processing and sugar production

To get sugar from cane, do the following:

The stems are cut before they bloom. They contain up to 8-12% fiber, 18-21% sugar and 67-73% water (salts and proteins).
Then the cut stems are crushed with iron shafts and the juice is squeezed out of them. The juice contains up to 18.36% sugar, 81% water and a very small amount aromatic substances that give the raw juice a peculiar smell.
Freshly slaked lime is added to raw juice. This is done to separate proteins. The resulting mixture is heated to 70°C, then filtered and evaporated until the sugar crystallizes.

Getting sugar from beets takes much more time and effort. Today the technology is:

The beets collected in the fields are accumulated on special sites - storage facilities, where they are kept for quite a long time. long time- up to three months.
After storage, the root crops are washed and processed into shavings.
Then, diffusion juice is obtained from beet chips with hot water (+75°C).
The juice goes through several stages of purification. It uses calcium hydroxide and carbon dioxide.
The purified juice is boiled down to a syrup with a solids concentration of 55-65%, then it is decolorized with sulfur oxide and filtered.
From the syrup in the vacuum apparatus of the 1st stage, a massecuite of the 1st crystallization (7.5% of water) is obtained, which is centrifuged, removing the "white" molasses. The crystals remaining on the centrifuge sieves are washed, dried, and packaged.
"White" molasses is thickened again in vacuum apparatuses of the 2nd stage and divided into "green" molasses and "yellow" sugar of the 2nd product, which, having previously dissolved in clean water, is added to the syrup entering the 1st stage vacuum apparatus.
For additional extraction of sugar, a 3-stage boiling and desugaring is sometimes used.
The molasses obtained at the last stage of crystallization is molasses - a waste of sugar production, which contains 40-50% sucrose and by weight is 4-5% of the mass of processed beets.

To date, the leader in the cultivation of sugar beet is Ukraine, followed by Russia and Belarus. Then - the countries of the European Union and the regions of Northern and Central America with a temperate climate.

Types of sugar

Types of sugar are distinguished by the plant from which it is obtained. In addition to cane and beet sugars, there are three more types:

Maple. It has been produced in the eastern provinces of Canada since the 17th century from the sap of the sugar maple. The volumes of extraction are impressive: up to 3-6 pounds of sugar are "filtered" from each tree annually.
Palm. This type of sugar is very common in South and Southeast Asia, the Moluccas and many islands of the Indian Ocean. Here it is often called jagre, but is obtained from sweet juice from cuts on young flower cobs of various types of palms, including coconut and date palms.
Sorghum. It is obtained from the stalks of sugar sorghum. Moreover, the technology was first developed in China in ancient times.

By the way. Refined sugar (the one in the form of cubes) was invented in 1843 in the Czech Republic. This brilliant idea came to the Swiss Jakov Christoph Radu, who worked as a manager at a sugar factory in Dačice. Today, at the place where this plant was located, there is a monument - a snow-white cube, symbolizing refined sugar.

Great Soviet Encyclopedia
Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron
Free electronic encyclopedia Wikipedia, section "Sugarcane".
Free electronic encyclopedia Wikipedia, section "Sugar beet".
Shorin P.M. Technology of cultivation and use of sugar sorghum.

The content of the article

SUGAR, from a chemical point of view, any substance from a large group of water-soluble carbohydrates, usually with a low molecular weight and a more or less pronounced sweet taste. These are mainly monosaccharides (simple sugars) and disaccharides, the molecule of which consists of two monosaccharide residues. The former include glucose (sometimes called dextrose or grape sugar) and fructose (fruit sugar, levulose); to the second - lactose (milk sugar), maltose (malt sugar) and sucrose (cane or beet sugar). In everyday life, however, only the usual food sweetener, sucrose, is called sugar; it is she who will be considered in this article.

Sugar is a high-calorie food; its energy value is approx. 400 kcal per 100 g. It is easily digested and easily absorbed by the body, i.е. it is a fairly concentrated and quickly mobilized source of energy.

Application.

Sugar is an important ingredient in various dishes, drinks, baked goods and confectionery. It is added to tea, coffee, cocoa; it is the main component of sweets, icings, creams and ice creams. Sugar is used in meat preservation, leather dressing and in the tobacco industry. It serves as a preservative in jams, jellies and other fruit products.

Sugar is also important for the chemical industry. It produces thousands of derivatives used in a wide variety of applications, including the production of plastics, pharmaceuticals, fizzy drinks and frozen foods.

Sources.

In different parts of the world, in addition to cane and beet sugar, some other products are used as sweeteners, such as corn syrup, maple syrup, honey, sorghum, palm and malt sugar. Corn syrup is a very viscous, almost colorless liquid obtained directly from cornstarch. The Aztecs, who used this sweet syrup, made it from corn in much the same way that sugar is made from cane today. Molasses is much inferior to refined sugar in terms of sweetness, however, it makes it possible to regulate the crystallization process in the manufacture of sweets and is much cheaper than sugar, therefore it is widely used in confectionery. Honey, which is high in fructose and glucose, is more expensive than sugar, and is added to some foods only when you want to give them a special taste. The same is the case with maple syrup, which is valued primarily for its specific flavor.

Sugar syrup is obtained from the stalks of bread sorghum, which has been used in China since ancient times. Sugar from it, however, has never been refined so well that it could successfully compete with beet or cane. India is practically the only country where palm sugar is commercially produced, but this country produces much more cane sugar. In Japan, malt sugar, made from starchy rice or millet, has been used as a sweetener for over 2,000 years. This substance (maltose) can also be obtained with the help of yeast from ordinary starch. It is much inferior to sucrose in terms of sweetness, however, it is used in the manufacture of bakery products and various types of baby food.

Prehistoric man satisfied his need for sugar through honey and fruits. Some flowers probably served the same purpose, the nectar of which contains a small amount of sucrose. In India, more than 4,000 years ago, a kind of raw sugar was mined from the flowers of the maduka tree ( Madhuca). Africans in the Cape Colony used the view Melianthus major, and the Boers in South Africa - Protea cynaroides. In the Bible, honey is mentioned quite often, and “sweet cane” is mentioned only twice, from which we can conclude that it was honey that served as the main sweetener in biblical times; this, by the way, is also confirmed by historical evidence, according to which sugar cane began to be grown in the Middle East in the first centuries of our era.

For a not too sophisticated taste, refined cane and beet sugar are almost indistinguishable. Raw sugar, an intermediate product of production containing an admixture of vegetable juice, is another matter. Here the difference is very noticeable: raw cane sugar is quite suitable for consumption (if, of course, obtained in adequate sanitary conditions), while beet sugar tastes unpleasant. Molasses (fodder molasses), an important by-product of sugar production, also differ in taste: cane molasses is readily eaten in England, and beet molasses is not suitable for food.

Production.

If the refining of beet sugar is carried out directly at sugar beet factories, then the purification of cane sugar, in which only 96-97% of sucrose, requires special refineries, where contaminants are separated from raw sugar crystals: ash, water and components, united by the general concept of "non-sugar ". The latter include scraps of vegetable fibers, wax that covered the stalk of the reed, protein, small amounts of cellulose, salts and fats. It is only thanks to the huge scale of production of refined cane and beet sugar that this product is so cheap today.

Consumption.

CANE SUGAR

Plant.

Story.

Apparently, the first mention of sugar in ancient times dates back to the time of Alexander the Great's campaign in India. In 327 BC one of his commanders, Nearchus, reported: “They say that in India there is a reed growing that gives honey without the help of bees; as if from it you can also make an intoxicating drink, although there are no fruits on this plant. Five hundred years later, Galen, the chief medical authority of the ancient world, recommended "sakcharon from India and Arabia" as a remedy for diseases of the stomach, intestines, and kidneys. The Persians, too, although much later, adopted from the Hindus the habit of eating sugar, and at the same time did a lot to improve the methods of its purification. As early as the 700s, Nestorian monks in the Euphrates Valley were successfully making white sugar using ashes to refine it.

The Arabs, who spread from the 7th to the 9th centuries. their possessions in the Middle East, North Africa and Spain, brought the culture of sugar cane to the Mediterranean. A few centuries later, the crusaders who returned from the Holy Land introduced sugar to all of Western Europe. As a result of the collision of these two great expansions, Venice, which found itself at the crossroads of the trade routes of the Muslim and Christian worlds, eventually became the center of the European sugar trade and remained so for more than 500 years.

At the beginning of the 15th century Portuguese and Spanish sailors introduced sugarcane culture to the islands of the Atlantic Ocean. His plantations appeared first in Madeira, the Azores and the Cape Verde Islands. In 1506, Pedro de Atienza ordered the planting of sugar cane in Santo Domingo (Haiti) - thus this culture penetrated the New World. In just some 30 years after its appearance in the Caribbean, it spread there so widely that it became one of the main ones in the West Indies, which is now called the "sugar islands". The role of sugar produced here grew rapidly with an increase in demand for it in the countries of Northern Europe, especially after the Turks captured Constantinople in 1453 and the importance of the Eastern Mediterranean as a supplier of sugar fell.

In the future, the main events in the history of cane sugar come down to important improvements in the technology of its cultivation, mechanical processing and final purification of the product.

Recycling.

The resulting so-called. "diffusion juice" (usually gray or dark green) contains sucrose, glucose, gum, pectic substances, acids and various impurities. Methods for its purification over the centuries have changed little. Previously, the juice was heated in large vats over an open fire, and ash was added to remove "non-sugars"; now, to precipitate impurities, lime milk is used. Where sugar is produced for local consumption, the diffusion juice is treated with sulfur dioxide (sulfur dioxide) immediately before lime is added to speed up bleaching and purification. Sugar turns yellowish, i.e. not completely refined, but quite pleasant to the taste. In both cases, after adding lime, the juice is poured into a sump-illuminator and kept there at 110-116 ° C under pressure.

Refining

its briefly boils down to the following. First, raw sugar is mixed with sugar syrup to dissolve the remaining molasses enveloping the crystals. The resulting mixture (affination massecuite) is centrifuged. The centrifuged crystals are washed with steam to give an off-white product. It is dissolved, turning into a thick syrup, lime and phosphoric acid are added there so that impurities float to the surface in the form of flakes, and then filtered through bone char (a black granular material obtained from animal bones). The main task at this stage is the complete discoloration and deashing of the product. Refining 45 kg of dissolved raw sugar consumes 4.5 to 27 kg of bone charcoal. The exact ratio is not established, since the absorbency of the filter decreases as it is used. The resulting white mass is evaporated and, after crystallization, centrifuged, i.e. they treat it in much the same way as with sugar cane juice, after which the refined sugar is dried, removing the remains of water (approx. 1%) from it.

Production.

Major producers include Brazil, India, Cuba, as well as China, Mexico, Pakistan, USA, Thailand, Australia and the Philippines.

BEET SUGAR

Plant.

Story.

Recycling.

Sugar beet is a bulky and perishable product, so processing plants are usually built close to plantations. It takes approx. 27 kg of coal and 16 kg of lime and coke. The process consists of the stages already described: extraction, purification, evaporation and crystallization.

First, the beets are washed, and then cut into shavings, which are loaded into a diffuser, where sugar is extracted from the plant mass with hot water. The result is a "diffusion juice" containing 10 to 15% sucrose. The remaining beet pulp serves as an excellent fodder for livestock. Diffusion juice is mixed in a saturator with lime milk. Heavy impurities settle here. Carbon dioxide is then passed through the heated solution to cause the lime to bind the non-sugar. After filtering them, they get the so-called. "Pure Juice" Bleaching involves passing sulfur dioxide gas through it and then filtering it through activated carbon. Excess water is removed by evaporation. The resulting liquid contains 50 to 65% sugar.

From molasses (the first runoff), a second, and then a third batch of already less pure crystals is obtained by evaporation. They are dissolved and refined.

Production.

MAPLE SUGAR AND SYRUP

American Indians added it instead of salt to cereals, soups and even meat dishes. They also taught the collection and processing of maple apiary to European settlers who tried to drain birch and gray walnut for the same purpose. The first written mention of this product dates back to 1760; it follows that maples grow in Canada, "giving a large amount of useful refreshing juice" suitable for making special sugar. The Winnebag and Chippewa tribes supplied large quantities of it to the Northwest Fur Company. Most maple sugar and syrup were produced between 1850 and 1890. In the future, the role of these products has declined, mainly because cane sugar is much cheaper. Nowadays, maple syrup is valued only for its special flavor and is consumed mainly with waffles and pancakes.

Soft caramel granulated sugar and exquisitely uneven beige cubes... It has firmly established itself on the shelves of health food stores, in expensive coffee shops and in gourmet kitchens.

Some consider it low-calorie and healthy, others - nothing more than a successful marketing ploy. What is its difference from the more familiar white refined sugar?

Myth one. Brown sugar is made from cane, white sugar is made from sugar beets.

In fact. It is not just cane, but unrefined cane, and this is a significant difference. Let's explain why.

Currently, sugar is produced both from cane and from the well-known root crop. If the finished raw product is refined, that is, completely cleaned of impurities, we get the white "sweet poison" familiar to us, which in recent times modern nutritionists are accused of all sins. Refined sugar of both origins is almost impossible to distinguish - both in composition and taste, they are almost the same. The main disadvantage of such a product is the presence of harmful impurities in it, since compounds such as phosphoric and formic acid, sulfur dioxide and bleaching agents are used to purify raw materials, a small part of which remains in the composition of white sugar.

Beetroot cannot do without refining - raw has an unpleasant odor and taste.

But unrefined cane (the same brown), on the contrary, in its original form only wins, acquiring a pleasant caramel aftertaste.

Mythsecond. This is a fashionable novelty invented by modern nutritionists.

In fact. The history of the product has more than one millennium - His Majesty Sugar, made from cane, came to Europe from Ancient India before our era. In Russia, it was sometimes tasted by the strong and noble of this world in the 11th-12th centuries, and the first sugar factory appeared in our country only under Peter I - in 1719. Few could afford "white gold" - it was not for nothing that the daughters of wealthy merchants specially blackened their teeth, supposedly spoiled from excessive consumption of expensive delicacies.

Interestingly, at first, "Dolce Vita" was represented by extremely difficult-to-grow cane varieties. Almost 100 years later, sugar began to be obtained from beets, and it turned out to be cheaper and more affordable. But history, including healthy eating, develops in a spiral - the undeservedly forgotten cane sugar has again taken pride of place among healthy and tasty sweets.

Myththird. Brown sugar is less calorie and ideal for diet food.

In fact. Alas, its energy intensity is not much different from the white counterpart. But the content of useful substances is really an order of magnitude higher. Caramel color and a special smell, appreciated by connoisseurs, gives this refined product molasses (molasses), rich in all kinds of useful substances- potassium, calcium, sodium, iron, magnesium and phosphorus.

In addition, the taste brown sugar more saturated, so it can be added to coffee and tea in smaller quantities.

Myth four. To check the quality of sugar, you need to put it in water. Fake will color it brown, real crystals will not change color.

In fact. Indeed, cane sugar, like any popular product, often forged, stained in Brown color ordinary beetroot. But "water procedures" are unlikely to help identify a fake. The molasses is concentrated in the upper layers of the crystals and dissolves faster. So even natural brown sugar in water will lose its color, and the water will be colored.

You can find out the authenticity of the product by taste and smell - it is quite difficult to fake them. In addition, pay attention to the supplier country - the countries of Latin America, Cuba and Mauritius inspire trust.

Myth five. Brown sugar does not withstand heat well and is not suitable for cooking.

In fact. It is indispensable for cooking caramel desserts, puddings, sugar-crusted pies, Christmas cakes and other sweets and pastries. It gives cookies a crumbly texture and cupcakes a special flavor. In addition, finished products are decorated with them.

Our many faces

There are several varieties unrefined sugar They differ in both taste and appearance.

Demerera - fine sugar with a delicate taste from South America and the islands of Mauritius, best friend strong coffee, fruit pies and meat in the glaze.

Muscavado- Barbados sugar, ideal for gingerbread, fudge and toffee.

Turbinado - Hawaiian sugar, partially refined.

Black Barbadian– the most fragrant and dark, suitable for exotic dishes and fruit muffins.

No sweetness

Some consider sweeteners useful alternative refined sugar. This opinion is erroneous.

artificial sweeteners , originally intended for diabetics - saccharin, cyclamate, aspartame and sucrasite have zero calorie, but at the same time stimulate appetite and increase the risk of obesity (the body was “promised” carbohydrates and “deceived” - it begins to require supplements). In addition, "sweet chemistry" also has a number of side effects- from allergic reactions and headache to an increased risk of cancer.

natural - such as sorbitol and xylitol, in large quantities cause indigestion.

Popular Fructose high-calorie and poorly suited for baking and jams.

honey herb stevia, more precisely - powders and syrups from it contain almost no calories and, according to manufacturers, even have medicinal properties. But not everyone likes the specific taste of stevia, and its effect on the body has not been fully studied.

Sweets were studied by Anna Morgunova