Sugar is a critical food ingredient usually added in foods to add some texture, aroma, or color, making it tempting and appealing. The addition of sugar makes the food sweet and flavoursome. This versatile ingredient also improves the shelf-life of food and is also full of benefits. It is mainly obtained from two major sources, sugarcane and sugar beet. Let’s learn here the entire process of sugar making.
1. Harvesting
The first step in the processing of sugar is to harvest the sugarcane and sugar beets. Sugarcanes are usually the long stalks of grass grown in tropical or subtropical parts of the world, whereas sugar beets are the root crops harvested from the temperate parts of the world. After harvesting, these plant materials are regularly sieved to eradicate dirt and rocks until loaded onto trucks to reach the factory for further processing.
2. Washing and Initial Preparation
The second step in the sugar process is extensive washing. Rotating drums are usually employed as working stations to wash these filtered plant materials. The workers spray the water into the drum, and sugar beets and sugarcanes inside rotates within the drum. While rotating, all plant materials rub against one another and eventually removes all the dirt. Subsequently, shredders and crusher rollers are used for crushing the sugarcanes, whereas the sugar beets are sliced in machines. The strips of sugar beets are called the Cossette. The crushed sugarcane is then treated with hot water, and the Cossette is soaked in hot water tanks. After this step, they are prepared for extraction.
3. Juice Extraction
Next in sugar processing is the extraction of juice from the Cossette and crushed sugarcanes. Five mills are used to compress the sugarcane fibers and squeeze the juice from the bagasse. When it comes to the Cossette, it is propelled into the bottom of tanks with the help of a rotating shaft for sugar extraction. The juices from the Cossette and sugarcane fibers are collected in large. Subsequently, their concentration is measured.
4. Juice Purification
The purification of the can juice occurs in high containers, which first lightens and purifies its color. Next in purification is the addition of sulfur dioxide in the tall tower. The rising of sulfur dioxide from the bottom to the top is known as sulfidation. Subsequently, different flocculation aids and lime are added. The juice is also heated to kill all the natural enzymes. Now for the clarification step, the sludge made us eliminated from the top of the tank. That sludge is further filtered to extract the remaining sugar. Eventually, a colourless sugar syrup is prepared after the clarified juice goes through the boiling process in a series of vacuum evaporators.
5. Crystallization
The sugar syrup next is evaporated in a single-stage vacuum pan and embraces the form of sugar crystals. This saturation occurs through a technique known as seeding. The mixture continuously boils in the pan, water evaporates, and the crystals continue to form into a massecuite. Now a dense blend of syrup and sugar crystals is shifted into a large vessel called a crystallizer. The mixture is cooled via stirring in the crystallizer.
6. Centrifugation
The massecuite is then transferred into a high-speed centrifuge to pass the molasses out of the lined centrifuge basket, whereas the sugar is contained in the centrifuge basket. During centrifugation, the crystals are washed with spring water.
7. Drying and Packaging
The last step of sugar production is drying and packaging the sugar crystals. They are dried in hot air dryers. Now they are passed in a granulator and separated into various sizes, and finally packed for the consumers by the South Africa sugar exporter.
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