Organic
Raw
Sugar?
Organic
raw sugar may sound like a natural product, but is in fact cooked, not
raw, and has been refined. Raw sugar in North American
English is
defined as "the
residue left after sugarcane has been processed to remove the molasses
and refine the sugar crystals"
(www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/american_english/raw-sugar).
In other words, the trace minerals and other nutrients found
in the molasses have been removed, and a
chemical agent (usually a form of lime, calcium carbonate or calcium
sulfite) has been added to clarify the sugar.
Bleaching
agents are often used, and then the sugar will be passed through animal
bone char to try to remove the traces of bleaching chemicals.
This means that the oh-so-natural-sounding "raw sugar" is not
suitable for vegans.
So,
"raw
sugar" is a rather misleading term. Raw cane sugar is the
same thing. Pure cane sugar is too - it may not have any
added ingredients, but it certainly has the goodness taken out to leave
pure, tasteless sucrose.
Of course, organic raw sugar and organic raw cane sugar, even
"organic cane sugar" must be made with organically-grown sugar cane,
but they are still a refined product made in the same way.
Brown
sugar is usually actually white sugar, coated in a little bit of
extract of molasses, so it is still refined and bleached and does not
contain nearly
as much natural plant material as truly unrefined sugar.
Whether
labelled dark brown sugar, light brown sugar, golden sugar, tan sugar,
turbinado sugar or demerara sugar, you're still getting much the same
thing - refined white sugar, coated with varying amounts of a
"controlled"
type of molasses (usually with flavour and color changed from the
original molasses).
As
you can see, so-called "raw sugar" is actually not nearly as wholesome
as it sounds, and "unrefined sugar" might actually have been refined,
depending on where it is sold. We suggest that the healthier
alternative is a
genuinely unrefined
whole cane sugar. Whole cane
meaning that the whole of the cane is
used, and the end product contains some plant material as well as
sucrose. Our whole cane sugar
is organic
and fair trade. No animal products are involved, so genuinely
unrefined sugar is suitable for vegans.
Note:
there are
variations between countries. In the UK, some sugar companies
are able to claim their sugar is "unrefined" because it is not white.
It is
theoretically illegal to sell "unrefined" sugar in Canada, while
unrefined sugar does not officially exist in the USA or Australia.
So you need to carefully check the manufacturer's definition
of
raw sugar or unrefined sugar to be sure you know what you are getting.
You should ask what has been added during the production
process,
and what (if anything) has been taken out. Vegans will
probably
want to know whether or not their "raw sugar" has been passed through
char made from animal bones.
In
contrast to raw sugar, true unrefined
sugar or "whole cane sugar" has just one input
– sugar cane
juice. The juice
is just boiled and evaporated until it forms a dense syrup or
molasses, which is either put in molds to set
or stirred until it granulates. Nothing is added, nothing is
taken away. So, whole cane sugar has all
the goodness and taste of sugarcane.
Unrefined
sugar has many names – it’s also known as
evaporated cane juice, whole
cane sugar, panela or rapadura sugar. As well as many Spanish
names for it in Latin America, unrefined sugar
is known in Asia as jaggery or gur.
Don't
be taken in by "raw sugar". Contact
us
today to buy the real deal. Made on
family farms by a community enterprise in rural Ecuador with
organic and fair trade certification, ours is
genuine
unrefined whole cane sugar.
Why organic raw sugar is NOT the same as organic unrefined
sugar
Organic raw sugar, pure cane sugar, raw cane sugar - all are refined
products. Only whole
cane sugar is genuinely not
refined.
CADO offers granulated, organic, fair trade whole cane sugar (also
known as
unrefined sugar, rapadura sugar or
evaporated cane juice) made by a community enterprise.