Bone char-ground up animal bone are use to whiten sugar, which means it's not vegan or vegetarian?

Question

Bone char-ground up animal bone are use to whiten sugar, which means it's not vegan or vegetarian?

Answer 1

Um regular?

Answer 2

Bone char is actually no longer used in the majority of sugars

Answer 3

About 50% of the cane sugar sold in the US is filtered through bone char and many veg*ns avoid it for that reason.  That still leaves another 50% of cane sugar that isn't bone char filtered, though you'd have to call manufacturers to find out whether they do or not (C&H and Domino do filter with bone char.)

Beet sugar, which is more common than cane in some parts of the country is never bone char filtered, so is always veg*n friendly.

You can also buy unbleached, organic sugar, which is sometimes sold as evaporated cane juice.  It subs 1:1 for regular granulated sugar and looks just like it except that it's a pale blonde color instead of pure white.  This is what I use when granulated sugar is called for.

There are also natural alternative sweeteners like agave nectar and stevia which can replace sugar (and are lower GI foods so they can even be well-tolerated by some diabetics.)

Answer 4

most sugar is bleached to turn white im pretty sure; it would tell if it had anything added to it so you should be able to check the sugar before u use/buy it.  

Answer 5

Only some sugar..

Answer 6

About 50% of cane sugar, which is about 50% of all refined sugar (the other 50% is beet sugar), is filtered through bone char. So if you're eating refined sugar, there's a 25% chance it was filtered through bone char. None of the bone char remains in the sugar, so there are no animal products remaining in the sugar. So by a process-based definition, it may not be vegan. Then again, anything transported by a truck with rubber tires probably isn't vegan either by those standards. The bone char is just left over from animals that are killed for the meat and dairy industries. If a lot less people ate meat and dairy, the bone char would become more expensive, so no sugar refineries would use it. So I don't consider sugar to be non-vegan, even if it is filtered through bone char.

Answer 7

it means it's not vegan. it's not too tough to avoid sugar at home. you can use organic sugar or maple syrup instead. i don't use regular sugar when i can but if it happens to be in something i eat i don't freak out. (i'm vegan).

Answer 8

That is what the V&V crowd says.

Answer 9

White sugar is not good

raw sugar or honey or maple syrup is better