Analysis and Control Strategies of Off-aromas in Beet Sugar

As the primary sources of sucrose, sugars from beet and cane are nearly chemically identical except some minor chemical components, which may consist of water, ash content, pigments and trace compounds. Although all the physical and chemical indexes meet the requirements, off-aromas composed by some trace volatile compounds in the refined white beet sugar may cause the unpleasant feelings of the users of beverage, bakery or candy, etc. These suspicious concerns of manufacturers may significantly decrease the usage of beet sugar in these food industries, resulting in the bottleneck of the commercial application of beet sugar. The off-aromas of beet sugar are complex in composition, and the mechanism of formation remains unclear. The author searched the domestic and foreign literatures to explore the off-aromas compositions and their possible forming paths, investigate the influencing factors, and retrieve the relative solutions for the controlling methods. This paper provides a more comprehensive understanding and feasible strategies to control off-aroma in beet sugar for the customers and their upstream suppliers.