Sugar Syrup In The Food Industry

Syrup is the term which generally describes the solution of a sweetener in water or a thick sweet sticky liquid. Many types of syrup are used in food industries which are made up of different sweeteners by different methods or processing parameters. These things are selected depended upon its final application. Food manufacturers often prefer to use sugar in the form of syrup mostly due to the ease of use, efficiency of liquid in process and to the favored process economy.

Sugar syrups produce pleasant flavor in product and occasionally cooling sensations in some foods, enhance shelf life properties and may simultaneously provide energy, nutrients and bio active compounds in food. high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), maple syrup, beet root syrup,

Only 40 years ago, 80% of the sugar on the European market was purchased by households and 20% was purchased by food industry players such as Coca Cola, Nestlé and Danone. Today the situation is just the opposite. (Source: FAO internal follow-up). This show the effect of industrialization on sugar demand and consumption which emphasis on further research and technically advancement needed to be in this sector. Sugar cane (Saccharum officinarum) is the major raw material for the production of sugar. Ripe sugarcane consists of 69-75% water, 8-16% sucrose, 0.5-2.0% reducing sugars, 0.5-1.0% organic matter, 0.2-0.6% inorganic compounds, 0.5-1.0% nitrogenous compounds, 0.3-0.8% ash and 10.0-16.0% fiber (Mathur, 1990). The main impurities of sugarcane juice include polysaccharides, starches, waxes, proteins, fibers and colorful polymers (Ghosh et al., 2000). In the cane sugar processing four key operations are involved: extraction of raw juice, purification, evaporation, and crystallization. The end-product, raw sugar, is about 96.0-98.5% sucrose, which is further refined to remove the remaining impurities to the extent that the final product is 99.9% sucrose (Rein,

Sugar industry is forced to investigate other alternatives due to the expensive working conditions of different chemicals and ion exchange resins (Novontony, 1985). Ultrafiltration and octadecylsilyl-silicagel (ODS) have also have shown to its effect to remove the impurity and colorant from sugar syrup. Sugar processing is one of the most energy-intensive processes among the food and chemical industry (Hinkova et al., 2005), and so, membrane separation processes such as micro-filtration (MF), ultra-filtration (UF), nano-filtration and reverse osmosis appear to be funded in several applications by the sugar industry (Hinkova et al., 2005). MF membranes are applied for the separation of particles at the 0.1-10.0 micrometer (µm) ranges (Scholz and Lucas, 2003). These ranges include microorganisms, suspense materials, colloids and emulsions (Carwright, 1994). Lancrenon et al., (1993) analyzed the application of MF (0.1-10 µm) and UF (2-200 nm) in sugar beet and sugarcane refinements (Hinkova et al., 2005). Membrane