Frequently Asked Questions about Sugar

Is Amalgamated's sugar beet or cane sugar?

The sugar marketed by Amalgamated is beet sugar, extracted from sugarbeet roots.

What are sugarbeets?

Sugarbeets are a temperate climate crop. Sugarbeets look like very large, cream colored carrots. Sugar is produced in the leaves of the sugarbeet plant and stored in the root. Beets are planted in the spring and harvested in the late fall. The sugarbeet processing campaign starts with the harvest, usually in late September. It continues until mid February or early March.

How are sugarbeets processed into sugar?

Beets are washed and sliced into thin strips. Sugar is extracted from the strips with hot water. The resulting raw juice is purified with lime and carbon dioxide, then filtered and concentrated. The concentrated thick juice is further evaporated in batch vacuum pans and the sugar is crystallized. The sugar crystals are separated from the mother liquor in centrifugals. The sugar is washed, dried and stored.

What is sugar?

Common table sugar is the chemical compound sucrose. It is a white, crystalline solid that is freely soluble in water. Sucrose is a disaccharide, that is the sucrose molecule is made up of two smaller, simple sugar molecules, glucose and fructose.

What is invert sugar?

When sucrose solutions are acidified the suceroe molecule hyrdolyzes or splits into the two simple sugar molecules. Commercial invert sugar is typically a 2:1:1 mixture of sucrose, glucose and fructose.

Are Beet and Cane sugar the same?

Even though they come for two different plants, beet and cane sugar are the same compound. They are used interchangeably in all applications.

Does Amalgamated use bone char?

Amalgamated does not use bone char nor any other animal products in the sugar extraction and refining process.

Is White Satin Sugar Kosher?

Amalgamated's sugar products are Kosher certified. Amalgamated's facilities are inspected regularly by representatives of Kosher Overseers of America.

Is White Satin Sugar Halal?

Amalgamated products are not certified as Halal. To the best of our knowledge they would qualify as Halal as no animal products, enzymes , nor alcohol are used in the sugar manufacturing process.

What is the FDA status of White Satin Sugar?

Sugar (sucrose) is listed as GRAS (Generally Accepted as Safe) by the FDA [21CFR184.1854]. All Amalgamated facilities are registered with the FDA as required by the 2002 Bioterroism act.

What is the Amalgamated Sugar Company?

The Amalgamated Sugar Company LLC is owned by Snake River Sugar Company, a grower owned Cooperative. It is headquartered in Boise, Idaho with processing plants in Paul, Twin Falls, and Nampa, Idaho. In addition, Amalgamated owns or leases warehouses and bulk transfer stations at strategic locations from the Midwest to the West Coast.

What is a Cone Sugar?

Cone sugar was the product when sugar was separated from molasses before centrifuges were developed in the late 1800's. The sugar-molasses mix was poured into small vertical cones which had a hole in the bottom. The molasses would drain out the hole, leaving the sugar in a cone shaped block. The cones were usually held for a few days in a heated room to speed up the molasses drainage. Water could be poured over the top of the cone to wash some of the molasses out.

Nippers, similar to pliers were used to break lumps of the sugar from the cones for use.