Scientific Understanding of the Traditional Practices Followed in India for the Production of Non-Centrifugal Sugar

Production of non-centrifugal sugar (NCS) is a traditional business, practiced for a few centuries, however, mainly restricted to small-scale production. It is produced by concentrating sugarcane juice by evaporation. At present, the NCS production is declining owing to many drawbacks, mainly drudgery-driven labor-intensive work and energy-inefficient process. The revival of the NCS production process requires overcoming such challenges by developing the scientific understanding of each step. However, the reported scientific studies on NCS as a product and its production process are very limited. In this paper, we describe the current manufacturing practices involved in NCS production and presented data from field and laboratory experiments to provide a scientific basis behind each process. They include sugarcane selection, juice clarification, thermochemical treatments, crystallization, molding, etc. The role of these steps on the product quality is discussed in detail. Various experiments were conducted to understand the logic behind the artisanal skill used by producers for qualitative assessment of raw material, processing parameters, and product quality. The understanding provides more clarity on the influence of critical parameters related to the traditional process and so on the final product. Few recommendations have been provided to produce NCS of desired quality and longer shelf life. The understanding opens up avenues to improve the current process, scales it up to avail benefits of economy of scale, and also applies automation in the production for the consistent quality products with lesser drudgery.