A method of making a flavoured sweetener or food product by incubating an unrefined plant extract containing sucrose as the main solute with a microorganism or microorganisms to form a modified unrefined plant extract; evaporating water from the modified sucrose-based plant extract to form a concentrate; and cooking the concentrate to develop colour and flavour to produce the flavoured sweetener is disclosed. The flavoured sweetener can serve as a coconut sugar substitute. In a preferred embodiment the unrefined plant extract comprises sugarcane juice or sugar beet juice, and the microorganisms may be selected from Stenotrophomonas maltophilia, Bacillus subtilis, Bacillus flexus, or a Klyveromyces species. The flavoured sweetener can be used to make a range of food and beverage ingredients and also food products including sauces, natural flavour extracts and flavour molecules, chocolate, health foods and convenience forms of the various forms of flavoured sweeteners.

Provided is a production process for powdered sugar and liquid syrup, comprising the steps of primary pressing sugar cane juice extraction, three-stage physical filtration, and sugar boiling, wherein the step of the three-stage physical filtration respectively uses a sieve plate, a bagasse separator and a micro-filtration membrane for filtration. The bagasse separator comprises a screen cylinder transversely arranged inside a separation bin. The inlet and outlet of the screen cylinder are respectively connected to a feeding bin and a discharging bin. A juice outlet and a bagasse outlet are respectively provided under the separation bin and the discharging bin. A propeller blade component is provided inside the screen cylinder. The propeller blade component is formed by combining vertical mixing blades with helical blades.

A process for reducing microbial growth in solutions of sugars extracted from waste materials, the process comprising monitoring indicators of microbial growth in the solution in situ and administering an antimicrobial; a sugar substrate obtained by concentrating a solution of sugar treated using the process; an apparatus for extracting sugars from waste materials, the apparatus comprising a reaction vessel (10), one or more sensors (15,20) for monitoring indicators of microbial growth in the reaction vessel, a software for analysing signals from the sensor and a source of antimicrobial.

A sugar liquid or solid sugar is derived from cellulose-containing biomass or blackstrap molasses, wherein content of one or more free amino acids selected from the group consisting of serine, threonine, asparagine, aspartic acid, glutamine, glutamic acid, proline, phenyl alanine, lysine, and histidine, which are impurities, is below the limit of detection.

The present invention relates to the provision of a method for producing a clear sugar beet pre-limitation juice and a coagulate removed from the pre-liming juice, and to a pre-liming juice and protein-containing fraction that are provided by means of said method. A decanter centrifuge having an angle between the longitudinal axis of the bowl and the generatrix of the conical portion of 6 to 10 is used.

A concentrated sugarcane juice powder obtained by a convection current vacuum freeze drying process that includes: selecting and preparing sugarcane stalks by a predetermined quality guideline; extracting sugarcane juice by inserting the sugarcane stalks into a sugarcane juice extracting apparatus having a mesh pattern of micro ridges configured to achieve a maximum extraction efficiency; adding probiotics into the extracted sugarcane juice; freezing the sugarcane juice mixed with the probiotics in molds using an individual quick freezer (IQF) to obtain frozen sugarcane juice blocks; and vacuum freezing said frozen sugarcane juice blocks using a convection current vacuum freeze drying apparatus.

A method for determining the lignin or lignin by-product content of a process stream includes measuring the fluorescence parameter of a fluorescence spectra of the process stream, comparing the measured fluorescence parameter with predetermined a fluorescence parameter of lignin or lignin by-product reference samples, determining the amount of lignin or lignin by-product based on the comparison with the reference samples. Lignin or lignin by-products can then be removed from a process stream by adding a sufficient amount of a compound suitable for precipitating the lignin or lignin by-product to the process stream, and removing the precipitated lignin or lignin by-product from the process stream.

The present invention provides methods of producing decolorized beet products and compositions produced therefrom. In some implementations, the decolorized beet product is decolorized beetroot juice.

A method for determining the lignin or lignin by-product content of a process stream includes measuring the fluorescence parameter of a fluorescence spectra of the process stream, comparing the measured fluorescence parameter with predetermined a fluorescence parameter of lignin or lignin by-product reference samples, determining the amount of lignin or lignin by-product based on the comparison with the reference samples. Lignin or lignin by-products can then be removed from a process stream by adding a sufficient amount of a compound suitable for precipitating the lignin or lignin by-product to the process stream, and removing the precipitated lignin or lignin by-product from the process stream.

A method of processing raw sugar cane juice, comprising: reducing the pH of the sugar cane juice to a pH at which microbiological activity is substantially eliminated; separating chlorophyll from the sugar cane juice; separating particles having a diameter greater than 0.5 microns from the sugar cane juice; denaturing polyphenol oxidase (PPO) in the sugar cane juice by pasteurisation; separating the denatured polyphenol oxidase from the sugar cane juice.