How is sugar produced from sugar cane?
During the process, the natural sugar stored in the cane stalk is separated from the rest of the plant material. This separation begins by grinding the cane and boiling it in water to begin the sugar extraction process. The sugar-containing juice is boiled until it thickens into a syrup from which the sugar crystallizes, the crystals are spun in a centrifuge where a portion of the molasses is removed to produce raw sugar, and the raw sugar is traditionally dried before shipment to a refinery. At the refinery, the raw sugar is mixed with water in a rapidly spinning centrifuge to remove the last remaining molasses. The white sugar is then crystallized, dried and packaged.
