About vegetarian / vegan sugar
Rahil Shah
I asked C&H Sugar company ( one of the largest popular sugar companies ) whether their sugar is vegan or not. I got the below response.
In summary they acknowledged that non-organic, regular sugar (C&H: Pure Cane Granulated White Sugar) is filtered through "bone char" but I believe still it is vegetarian as they say in the manufacturing process no impurity from the bone char gets mixed into the sugar. Still I believe we will be responsible for 'jiv hatya' or 'animal cruelty' as bone char from animals is used in the manufacturing.
They confirmed that Washed Raw Sugar and a pure cane certified Organic Sugar are not filtered with bone char , hence i believe its better we use these as jains
MY suggestion
Do not use this - C&H: Pure Cane Granulated White Sugar
Use this if possible - http://www.amazon.com/Pure-Cane-Certified-Organic-Sugar/dp/B002GWHDY6
http://www.amazon.com/Pure-Cane-Certified-Organic-Sugar/dp/B002GWHDY6
Both are available at Costco.
Regards,
Rahil
Dear C&H Sugar Consumer:
This is in response to your recent inquiry regarding our current use of animal derived natural charcoal (aka “bone char”) in our cane sugar refining process, Natural charcoal has been used for over 175 years to manufacture sugar and over the past 10 years to filter and demineralize water. At American Sugar Refining, Inc. we utilize natural charcoal for the decolorization and deashing of sugar liquor via fixed bed adsorption at our Baltimore (MD), Chalmette (LA), and Crockett (CA) cane refineries. Natural charcoal is not used for decolorization at our Yonkers (NY) refinery.
During the cane sugar refining process, heavy density (brix) sugar liquor passes across the natural charcoal bed and specific impurities (colorants and inorganic constituents) from the liquor are captured within the internal pores of the charcoal – the charcoal does not transfer impurities to the sugar solution. Hence, we consider natural charcoal to be a completely safe inert processing aide. In addition, this natural charcoal product is not soluble in either water or liquid sugar. Subsequent processing operations after decolorization include evaporation and further purification by crystallization and drying. The extremely high quality pure refined sugar products manufactured from our process do not contain any actual impurity from the natural charcoal.
We also market a natural Washed Raw Sugar and a pure cane certified Organic Sugar which are crystallized from pressed/filtered cane juice and not filtered via natural charcoal. These natural sugar products are favored for their granular texture, and rich subtle molasses flavor.
I trust this information is sufficient to answer your questions and address your concerns.
Best regards,
Carla, C&H Sugar Co.
C&H Consumer Affairs
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Sent: Monday, January 06, 2014 1:08 AM
To: C&H Consumer Affairs; Pam Abbazia
Subject: C&H Sugar Contact Form Submission
, CA
Hello I had a question about the cane sugar products , I am a strict vegan and I just wanted to know does your company use animal bone char to filter sugar or not? If yes,does all the types of sugar products you sell use bone char or there are some products which do not use it. Kindly let us know this information as this important to our diet and beliefs
1/6/2014 3:08:42 AM