Sugar Beet Molasses Production and Utilization

Abstract

Molasses is mostly produced from sugarcane or sugar beet in the world. The sugar content of molasses mainly comprises sucrose and inverted sugar. The inverted sugars in sugar beet molasses do not exceed 1%. Basically, there are two types of molasses, i.e., soft and hard molasses, depending upon the concentration of the soluble salts of Ca++ and Mg++ which impart the hardness to the molasses. Beet molasses is proven to be very nutritious as it contains a pretty good amount of essential amino acids, different minerals and betaine. Industrial production of sugar beet molasses follows the steps like extraction, beet juice purification, concentration, and crystallization. Molasses desugaring by chromatographic process (MDC) is a recent method for the separation of sugar from the molasses. Beet molasses can be utilized in several ways, like human food, beverage, pharmaceutical, etc., but the major use of beet molasses lies as cattle feed. Future research and development programs should focus on finding alternative use of sugarcane as well as making government policies and incentives for sugar beet industries.