Sucrose loss in the manufacture of cane sugar.

The loss of recoverable sucrose in sugarcane harvesting, raw sugar. manufacture and sugar refining is a serious economic problem to the entire sugar industry. Chemical and microbial destruction of sucrose begin sometime even before harvesting, and continue through factory and refinery, and during storage of raw and refined sugars. In this paper, the various causes of sucrose loss, including inversion, thermal destruction, alkaline degradation, and microbial action are dekribed, and factors responsible for pathways of sucrose destruction are discussed. Problems other than sucrose loss, such as colorant formation and microbial polysaccharide development, are investigated. The quantities of sucrose loss under various conditions in process, and methods for the estimation of sucrose loss are discussed. An overall picture of sucrose loss, the reasons and results from field to factory and refinery is presented.