Paddock to plate - all about sugars

From paddock to plate

Ever wondered how sugar gets from the paddock to your plate?

Step 1
Planting

In Australia and New Zealand, sugar comes from the sugarcane plant.

The cane mostly grows from old (mature) stalks which are lightly buried in the ground.

Step 2
Growing

To grow well, sugarcane needs strong sunlight; fertile soil; and lots of water.

It can take between 16 - 24 months for a cane crop to mature, depending on the climate.

When ripe or mature, the cane is usually between 2 - 4 meters tall and looks a little like mini-bamboo.

Step 2
Growing

Step 3
Harvesting

Between June to November every year is 'crushing' season in northern Queensland and northern New South Wales. These days harvesting is done by heavy-duty machines called cane harvesters that cut the cane stalks off the plant at its base. The cane is then cut into 30 cm lengths and put into a large bin, all whilst moving through the field row by row.

As harvesting cannot be done in the rain, farmers are very dependant on fine weather.

Step 4
Send
for milling

Once harvested, the cane is transported to a nearby mill.

This is done by either road or train.

Getting the cane to the mill quickly is important because the longer it sits around the more juice is evaporated and sugar is lost!

Step 4
Send
for milling

Step 5
Milling

The role of sugar mills is to crush the cane and extract the sugar (sucrose) from the water, impurities and plant fibre.

The end result is 'raw' sugar, however, this is generally not safe to eat. Yet.

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The milling process

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CHOP & SHRED

The cut cane arrives at the mill and is first weighed. After this the cane is chopped and shredded into smaller and smaller pieces. This process is used to burst the juice cells.

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CRUSH

The cane material is then crushed as it is fed through a series of rollers, separating the juice from the fibrous material. The leftover fibrous material is then used as fuel to run the mill's boiler furnaces.

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WASH & CRYSTALLISE

The juice is pumped away to be turned into raw sugar. The juice is cleaned to remove impurities and boiled. This is then concentrated by boiling further under a vacuum. The concentrated syrup is then crystallised (They are called sugar crystals for a reason!).

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SPIN & DRY

To remove some of the colour, the mixture is literally spun. As in put in a centrifuge and spun until the colour (which comes from the molasses) flies off. From here it is simply dried, stored and is ready for the next stage!

Step 6
Refining

As mentioned, most mills produce 'raw' sugar, not to be confused with the raw sugar that we use to sweeten hot drinks. 'Raw' sugar from the mill needs to go through a few more steps before we can eat it. This happens at a refinery.

By controlling or changing different steps through the refining process different types of sugar can be made. This is where we get brown sugar, rapadura, caster sugar, golden syrup, raw sugar and white sugar from (just to name a few!).

Step 6
Refining

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The refining process

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MELT & SPIN

The raw sugar is mixed with syrup to help soften the crystals. The syrup is then spun (just like at the mill) to remove even more colour. The crystals left are then mixed with hot water and passed through a sieve. This gets out all the big, unwanted, non-sugar bits. 

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CLEAN AND DE-COLOUR

The cleaning and colour removal process continues with lime used to help remove the unwanted bits, and activated carbon used to help remove the colour. This also includes several turns in a series of clarifiers when, just like skimming the fat off chicken soup, the impurities are skimmed off the top of the sugar liquid mixture.

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CRYSTALLISE & SEPARATE

Over the next few steps the sugar syrup is concentrated, sterilised (sounds scary but it's just with UV light) turned into crystals and spun in centrifuges (yes, again), to make sure it's safe to eat and to remove any last colour from the molasses.

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DRY & GO

The final stages are really just about drying the sugar, keeping it moving so it doesn't stick together and then storing or packing it for either supermarket shelves or commercial (food service) use.

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