The question of if sugar is vegan has been hotly discussed by the plant-based community over the years. Since we do not want to clarify this topic on all food related articles we write, we have chosen to write a definitive sugar guide for vegans.
Before we dive into the nitty gritty details about sugar, we first want to state that eating vegan is not about perfection – it is about reducing animal suffering, increase health and well being, and reducing our environmental impact. We all have our reasons for choosing a vegan diet or lifestyle and there are much bigger problems than the processing methods of sugar. We think Peta sums this up nicely when they state the following:
“Don’t stress too hard about sugar if you’re unsure about how it was produced. You’re saving more than 100 animals per year by following a vegan lifestyle, and the effect will snowball as people around you, inspired by your choices, may start trying vegan meals once you’ve shown them how easy it can be. ”
Can Vegans Eat Sugar?
In order to determine if vegans can eat sugar, we first need to look at the production process of sugar. In general, sugar is just a generic name for a sweet-tasting and soluble carbohydrate. For this article, we will be discussing table sugar which is made of sucrose. To make table sugar, sucrose is extracted from plant tissues. Typically sugarcane or sugar beets are used to make table sugar due to their high concentrations of sucrose compared to other plants. While less common, other sources of sugar are coconut palm and date palm.
Sugarcane and sugar beets are processed in different manners due to the availability of their sucrose. Since the vegan issues with sugar come during the processing steps, we will look at these two production processing steps separately.
Beet Sugar Production
Beet Sugar Production Steps
- Harvest – Sugar Beets are a root vegetable which are harvested in the autumn and early winter. Since sugar beets grow in the ground, they are thoroughly washed and separated from leaves and extra debris.
- Extraction – In a similar process to extracting tea from tea leafs, the sugar beets are cut into thin slices and placed in hot water. Helps to extract the sugar into the water. When the water becomes a strong sugar solution. It is referred to as juice.
- Pressing – After most of the sugar is removed from the beets in the extraction step, the remaining beet slices are pressed to remove any remaining juice.
- Carbonation – In order to remove any non-sugars from the sugar juice, small clumps of chalk are grown in it. Since the non-sugars are collected in the clumps, they are easily removed at the end of carbonation.
- Boiling – After all non-sugars are removed, the juice is boiled to remove as much excess liquid as possible. The remaining sugar syrup is ready for crystal formation.
- Sugar Crystal Creation – Sugar dust is added to the sugar syrup to initiate sugar crystal formation. After the crystals are formed, the remaining crystal and liquid mix is separated in a centrifuges. The crystals are further dried before packaging.
- Final Product – The resulting product is a white sugar ready for use. No additional filtration is required.
So, is Beet Sugar Vegan?
Since no animal-based products are used in the production of beet sugar, all varieties are vegan friendly! Unfortunately, this is not the case for cane sugar.
Cane Sugar Production
Cane Sugar Production Steps
- Harvest – Sugarcane is harvested by chopping off the stems and leaving the roots. The sugarcane roots will regrow in additional crops.
- Extraction – While the sugar in sugarcane can be extracted by diffusion similar to sugar beets, it is typically done through crushing. In a similar manner to wringing the water out of clothes, the sugar cane is crushed between large rollers. The resulting sugar water solution is once again called juice.
- Cleaning – In order to remove any dirt, leaves, or other non-sugars from the juice, slaked lime is added to settle out any non-sugars. This works in a similar manner to the chalk in the sugar beet processing.
- Boiling – After all non-sugars are removed, the juice is boiled to remove as much excess liquid as possible. The remaining sugar syrup is ready for crystal formation.
- Sugar Crystal Creation – Sugar dust is added to the sugar syrup to initiate sugar crystal formation. After the crystals are formed, the remaining crystal and syrup mix is separated in a centrifuges. The crystals are further dried before storage. As not all of the sugars can be extracted from the syrup, the resulting byproduct liquid is molasses.
- Refining – Unlike the beet sugar product, cane sugar is a light brown color. In order to achieve the pure white sugar we all expect, the cane sugar is put through a decolorizing filter known as natural carbon. Natural carbon is almost always bone char in the cane sugar industry. Bone char is made by heating animal bones at very high temperatures until they are reduced to carbon.
- Final Product – The resulting cane sugar is pure white as found on grocery store shelves. However it is important to note that “refined sugar does not contain any bone particles and is therefore kosher certified. The bone char simply removes impurities from the sugar, but does not become a part of the sugar” according to Caroline Pyevich of The Vegetarian Journal.
So, is Cane Sugar Vegan?
Since animal-derived bone char is used to refine cane sugar, it is often considered to be a non-vegan product. However, only the refined variety of cane sugar is typically non-vegan. The other varieties of cane sugar (organic, unrefined, natural or raw) are vegan friendly. So if the sugar in the store contains any of these labels, then it is almost always vegan.
As noted previously, bone char is only used to refine sugar and no actual bone char particles make their way into store bought sugar.
Coconut Sugar – Photo Credit: Healthline
What about Coconut Sugar and Date Sugar? Are they vegan friendly?
Both coconut and date sugars are processed in a similar method to beet sugar so no filtration needs to take place. Therefore, both coconut and date sugars are vegan!
Does Brown Sugar Have Bone Char?
According to Wikipedia, brown sugar is typically made by adding molasses to white sugar. Commercial brown sugar contains from 3.5% molasses (light brown sugar) to 6.5% molasses (dark brown sugar) based on total volume. As molasses is byproduct of the cane sugar making process before refining, it is vegan. If the white sugar used to make brown sugar is refined cane sugar, then it is not vegan. However if the white sugar is vegan to begin with, then the resulting brown sugar is also vegan-friendly.
Is Powdered Sugar Vegan?
Powdered sugar is made by combining finely ground sugar with cornstarch (used to prevent caking). As with brown sugar, whether or not powdered sugar is vegan depends on the original sugar used. If the original sugar was refined cane sugar then powdered sugar would not be vegan. Conversely, if the original sugar was vegan-friendly then so too is the powdered sugar as cornstarch is almost always vegan-friendly.
Vegan Sugar Brands
If you want to make sure that your sugar is vegan-friendly, all of the following brands do not use bone char in the sugar processing.
Alternative Vegan Sweeteners
If you’re looking to avoid sugar altogether, try one of these great vegan sweeteners instead!
Additional Sugar FAQs
Q: Is Great Value Sugar Vegan?
While it does not explicitly say on Walmart’s website, it is highly likely that Great Value sugar is refined cane sugar. Therefore, Great Value sugar is NOT vegan.
Q: Is Domino Sugar Vegan?
According to Target’s website, Domino sugar’s packaging states that their sugar is cane sugar, but does not include any of the vegan sugar keywords (organic, unrefined, natural or raw). Therefore, it is highly likely that Domino sugar is NOT vegan.
Q: Is Kirkland Organic Sugar Vegan?
All organic sugar is vegan-friendly. Therefore, Kirkland Organic Sugar is vegan!
Summary
Who knew that sugar was so complicated??? Hopefully this article dispelled some of the myths around vegan sugar. The key takeaway from this article is that all sugar varieties besides refined cane sugar (and the associated brown and powdered sugars) should be vegan friendly. If the packaging includes the words organic, unrefined, natural, or raw then there is a high likelihood that it is vegan.
You can find all of our articles on vegan snack options here.
Sources for the sugar production processes came from Sucrose.com and Wikipedia.
