58 SWEETENED CONDENSED MlI,K ADDITION OF SUGAR 



undergo fermentation and which has the power of inhibiting bac- 

 terial activity when dissolved in a concentrated solution. Glucose 

 could be purchased at a very low cost, but it is not suitable for this 

 purpose, since it is, in itself, very unstable and fermentable. It has 

 no preservative qualities, even in concentrated solutions. Sucrose, 

 saccharose, or cane sugar, C^H^O^, properly refined, ferments 

 with difficulty in concentrated solutions, and has the power of re- 

 tarding the growth of bacteria and other ferments ordinarily present 

 in sweetened condensed milk. It is, therefore, very satisfactory and 

 useful in this connection. 



Beet sugar, which is chemically identical with cane sugar, is 

 used in European countries very largely in the place of cane sugar. 

 On the continent the beet sugar industry is an important factor. 

 With the climate adapted to the growing of sugar beets and the 

 labor relatively cheap, beet sugar can be secured by the European 

 condenseries at lower cost than cane sugar. In America, where the 

 annual sugar cane crop is large and where the high cost of labor 

 renders the expense of growing sugar beets relatively high, there 

 is practically no difference between the price of cane sugar and beet 

 sugar. When American beet sugar was used in the condenseries 

 during the infancy of the beet sugar industry, this sugar was found 

 undesirable, often giving rise to fermented condensed milk. It was 

 then supposed by the condensed milk men that beet sugar contained 

 very resistant spore-bearing bacteria, which followed the beets from 

 the soil into the refined sugar. This conclusion is highly improbable, 

 as the temperatures and chemicals employed in the process of beet 

 sugar making are prohibitive of the passage of living bacteria from 

 the soil to the finished sugar. It is possible, however, that the 

 standard of refinement of American beet sugar, during the earlier 

 days of its manufacture, was low and that some of the beet sugar 

 on the market may have contained small amounts of acid, invert 

 sugar and other impurities, ingredients of such a nature as to render 

 the sugar prone to give rise to fermentation and, therefore, condemn 

 its use in the milk condensery. 



While the beet sugar on the market today appears to have 

 reached a very high state of refinement and is, according to the best 

 authorities, equal in purity to cane sugar, it is still shunned by the 

 American condenseries, which insist that nothing but cane sugar will 

 do. However, the total beet sugar production in the United States 



