White sugar

This article is about table sugar. For album by Joanne Shaw Taylor, see White Sugar (album).
A bowl of white sugar

White sugar, also called table sugar, granulated sugar, or regular sugar, is a commonly used type of sugar, made either of beet sugar or cane sugar, which has undergone a refining process. It is nearly pure sucrose.

Description

The refining process completely removes the molasses from cane juice or beet juice to give the disaccharide white sugar, sucrose. It has a purity higher than 99.7%.[1] Its molecular formula is C
12H
22O
11.[2] White sugars produced from sugar cane and sugar beet are chemically indistinguishable: it is possible, however, to identify its origin through a carbon-13 analysis.[1]

White sugar (and some brown sugar) produced from sugar cane may be refined using bone char by a few sugar cane refiners.[3] Beet sugar has never been processed with bone char and is vegan.[4]

From a chemical and nutritional point of view, white sugar does not contain—in comparison to brown sugar—some minerals (such as calcium, potassium, iron and magnesium) present in small quantities in molasses.[5][6][7] The only detectable differences are, therefore, the white color and the less intense flavor.[7]

References

  1. ^ a b Dario Bressanini (3 June 2009). "Miti culinari 6: lo zucchero veleno bianco". Le Scienze Blog (in Italian). Retrieved 30 October 2018.
  2. ^ "What is sugar?". Exploratorium. 7 March 2023. Retrieved November 15, 2023.
  3. ^ "Animal Bones". www.sucrose.com. Retrieved 2019-09-19.
  4. ^ "A List of Bone Char Free Vegan Sugar Companies". ordinaryvegan.net. 29 March 2014. Retrieved 2019-09-19.
  5. ^ Raffaella Procenzano (28 January 2014). "Lo zucchero bianco fa male più dello zucchero grezzo?" (in Italian). Retrieved 30 October 2018.
  6. ^ Anahad O'Connor (12 June 2007). "The Claim: Brown Sugar Is Healthier Than White Sugar". Retrieved 30 October 2018.
  7. ^ a b Dario Bressanini (6 April 2009). "Miti culinari 5: le virtù dello zucchero di canna". Le Scienze Blog (in Italian). Retrieved 30 October 2018.