Sugar - sweet greetings from nature

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Sugar is a natural product present in all plant types. Sugar is created from sun, water and carbon dioxide in a process called photosynthesis. Sun is the prime mover, so it would be fair to say that sugar is in a way stored solar energy.

Two plants contain more sugar than all others: sugar canes and sugar beets. They are also the only plants suitable for sugar extraction.

The far majority of sugar produced by Nordic Sugar stems from sugar beets. Beets are roots with green leaves. They grow directly in the soil, where they absorb water and key nutrients. The photosynthesis develops in the green leaves, generating and storing sugar in the root or beet. Beet sugar is saccharose, the same type as sugar extracted from sugar cane. Sugar beets mainly consist of water (75 %) and sugar (17-19 %) in addition to minerals, amino acids, polyphenols, vitamins, etc.

From beet to crystal

The sugar beets we use in our production are cultivated in the immediate vicinity of our sugar factories. Nordic Sugar cooperates closely with the beet growers with a view to ensuring high quality and safe, sustainable cultivation. Read more here.

Once the growers have harvested the beets, they are delivered to our sugar factories where sugar is extracted. Beets are washed, cut and poured into hot water. Hot water opens up the beet cells that contain the sugar, and the sugar flows into the water. The process creates a sugar juice, which we clean of soil particles and bacteria by first adding a little slaked lime and a little carbon dioxide. Finally, we filter off the precipitated lime (chalk). The sugar factory produces its own slaked lime and carbon dioxide by heating limestone.

Next, we boil the cleaned sugar juice in large vats, allowing it to evaporate to reach a high sugar concentration. We add a small amount of icing sugar to make sugar crystallise from the juice. The sugar crystals are immersed in the juice from which they crystallised. We pour the substance into a centrifugal separator, in which a sieve retains the crystals while the juice is flung from the crystals. The result is the white granulated sugar we know. Once it dries, it is ready for spicing up consumers’ everyday life.

Get an insight into our sugar production here.