A few people have asked me why I use the term "vegan sugar" on my product discriptions for my Sugar Shea Scrubs. "Isn't all sugar vegan?" They want to know. The simple answer is no. The complicated answer is that it is difficult to tell if it is vegan sugar or not, but it more likely is not.
About half of the white sugar manufactured in the US is beet sugar and the other half is cane sugar. The bleaching process for cane sugar is done using a charcoal activation system which may be of animal, vegetable or mineral origin. Over half of the refineries use animal bone char as their charcol. This process is never necessary for beet sugar. All beet sugar is vegan.
Adding to the complication is the labeling process. Why not just use beet sugar? It usually impossible for the consumer to descern beet sugar from cane sugar because often the ingredients simply say "sugar." It is not required that manufacturers specify where it comes from or how it is processed.
Because I label my products vegan, I have chosen to not use any cane sugar unless it is raw. This is why my scrubs are made with turbinado sugar which has not been bleached. The result is a coarse, long lasting and lightly foaming scrub with excellent exfoliation properties that is proudly 100% cruelty free.
Well, I learned something new today. Thanks for sharing!
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