The sugar obtained from sugar beet (household sugar, granulated sugar), which accounts for around half of global production. The main area of distribution of this fruit is Europe, but it is also cultivated in the USA, Canada and Asia. The second half of production comes from sugar cane, and the cane sugar obtained from it is chemically identical to beet sugar. The German chemist Andreas Sigismund Marggraf (1709-1782) first identified the sugar content of beetroot in 1747. Today's species contain around 18 to 20% sugar.
The foundations of industrial sugar production were laid by the German scientist Franz Carl Achard (1753-1821), and the first beet sugar factory was established in his native Silesia. The sugar type sucrose is contained directly in these two crops and is extracted by dissolving, boiling or pressing in an aqueous solution and precipitated as crystals (granulated sugar) during further boiling. This disaccharide consists of the simple sugars fructose (fruit sugar) and glucose (grape sugar). Beet sugar (cane sugar) is used in dry form in winemaking, among other things, for fortification to increase alcohol content.
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