Sugar, not quite as vegetarian as you thought!

sweet-rasmus

scarey, i know, but it seems not all white sugar is vegetarian. to make sugar white it must be filtered, which may be done three ways; through charcoal derived of animal, vegetable or mineral origin. i have yet to find out if any company definitley uses animal charcoal, but if you search the net you'll find that it is possibly the case.

insane!

biko

More info http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivory_black

Tar.Aldarion

sweet-rasmus wrote:

scarey, i know, but it seems not all white sugar is vegetarian. to make sugar white it must be filtered, which may be done three ways; through charcoal derived of animal, vegetable or mineral origin. i have yet to find out if any company definitley uses animal charcoal, but if you search the net you'll find that it is possibly the case.

insane!

Hey you! long time no see!

Although I gave up sugar about ten or so years ago, this may have affects on foods I eat with sugar as an ingrediant?
Hmm I'll have to check this out.
Thanks!

sweet-rasmus

but still i find it a little too odd. i emailed siucra (irish sugar company) asking about it, so i'll see if they get back to me...

Shabadu

Gosh- that's very interesting, I looked at a bag of Siucra in my press and couldn't see a vegetarian symbol. Some veggies I know will be v. pissed off if charcoal made from animal derivatives is commonly used. What about the sugar that's used in confectionaries? I wonder does it apply to all sugars? For example, I use fructose instead of sucrose.

A 100% vegetarian and vegan alternative would be agave cactus syrup, similar to maple syrup, but it takes the digestive system longer to break down, and has fewer calories, so it's generally better for you.

embraer170

If you stop eating sugar and products containing sugar, the question starts to be what on earth can you eat at all?

I'm a serious lacto vegetarian but this is high on the list of thing I'd prefer to not have known.

sweet-rasmus

i know what you mean...

sweet-rasmus

one thing i noticed this morning is that the brown muscavado sugar is 100% fine because it litreally says "unrefined" on the side of the pack. not all brown sugars are 100% fine because some have also been filered through the charcoal.

http://veggietable.allinfo-about.com/articles/sugar.html
http://www.boutell.com/vegetarian/sugar-honey.html
http://www.vegsource.com/jo/qa/qasugar.htm

all have some interesting info.

sweet-rasmus

aha! i just had a look at my packet of caster sugar made by siucra, and on the back it does say, "suitable for vegans and vegetarians". joy joy!!

Shabadu

sweet-rasmus wrote:

aha! i just had a look at my packet of caster sugar made by siucra, and on the back it does say, "suitable for vegans and vegetarians". joy joy!!

Really? /me goes back to check

...oh.

Sorry everyone. I've had a flu for the past while. Also, excellent point about muscavado. It is the best sugar for breads, deserts and coffee in my opinion. It's surprising just how many places you can substitute it for caster sugar, or even use half muscavado and half caster.