Molasses
Molasses (melas = ancient Greek = black) is a byproduct of the sugar production based on sugar beets and sugar cane. Molasses basically consists of the remaining non-crystallized sugar after removal from the centrifuge. It is a natural product that once processed can not be further modified.
As a natural product molasses underlies various quality influencing factors:
▪ vegetation cycle of the crops
▪ climatical conditions during the vegetaion cycle
▪ nature of acreage / fertilization / pest control
▪ time of harvest and processing
▪ conditions of production / additives
The quality can vary every year. Sugar refineries more efficient production methods tend to result in higher sugar gains from sugar beets and sugar cane. Consequently the sugar content of molasses decreases.
Annual worldwide production of cane molasses is about 60 million tons (America, Asia, Africa, Australia) whereas beet molasses worldwide production is about 8 million tons.
Molasses visual perception can vary from brown to deep black, viscosity depends heavily on temperature and differs from factory to factory.
There are other molasses in addition to afore mentioned kinds of molasses. Physically these products are similar to molasses (color, consistency, voscosity), but there is a difference in their ingredients. This results in different usability of these products.
Sugar beet molasses
Different origins, factories and campaigns can result in different qualities of sugar beet molasses as well as different qualities during the campaign. This is due to ongoing optimized production processes which lead to an unsteady composite of the molasses.
Molasses is made up of residual ingredients of the processed sugar beet as well as traces from used additives in different proportions, depending on whether the sugar production method is used. Based on usage, the following ingredients are viewed as the main quality determiners. The sugar content of sugar beets is typically termed as polarization, the dry matter as Brix.
The quality of non-standardized molasses can vary within the following benchmarks:
| Direct Polarisation | 42 to 54% |
| Invert | 0 < 1,5 |
| Brix | 73 to 86 % |
| Ash | 5 to 8 % |
| Raw protein | 8 to 12 % |
Two trading standards established themselves as follows:
| Quality molasses: | is mainly used in contracts where molasses is used in fermenting processes. The commercial wording is: Sugar beet molasses: min. 47 % sugar polarisation, min. 76.3 Brix, max. 1 % invert, sound quality, pure, undesugarized, usual In trade, otherwise tel quel |
| Feed molasses: | is mainly being used in contracts where molasses is used in compound feed production or as direct feed stuff. The commercial wording is: Sugar beet molasses: min. 42 % total sugar, min. 70 Brix, sound quality, usual in trade |
If you need further information please don’t hesitate to contact us.
Sugar cane molasses
Depending on origin, producer, exporter and loading port the qualities of sugar cane molasses can vary heavily.
Molasses is made up of residual ingredients of the processed sugar cane as well as traces from used additives in different proportions, depending on whether the sugar production method is used. Based on usage the following ingredients are viewed as the main quality determiners. The sugar content of sugar cane is typically termed as saccharose or total sugar, the dry matter as Brix or it is displayed as water / drymatter.
The quality of non-standardized cane molasses can vary within the following benchmarks:
| Saccarose | 25 to 39% |
| Invert | 12 to 19% |
| Brix | 77 to 86% |
| Ash | 8 to 14% |
| Raw protein | 4 to 6% |
Depending on usage, this commodity is traded in different forms. For fermenting purposes mainly based on analysis or sample report with a price setting pro – rata calculation of the sugar content.
For raw material purposes in the compound feed sector and according to customers demands there are different standardized trading norms as follows:
| Sugar cane molasses: | min. 47 % total sugar, max. 28 % water or min. 45 % total sugar, max. 30 % water, sound quality, usual in trade, otherwise tel quel |
If you need further information please don’t hesitate to contact us.
