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granular carbon, a pressure lead filter, or an ion exchange system. Granular carbon has a wood or coal base, and the ion exchange does not require the use of any animal products. Bones from cows are the only bones used to make bone char. Two major types of refined sugar produced in the United States are beet sugar and cane sugar. They both are nutritionally equivalent, and one cannot usually taste any difference between them. They are both composed of sucrose. The production and sale of each type are approximately equal. Beet sugar refineries never use bone char filter, because beet sugar does not require an extensive decolorizing procedure. It is refined with a pressure lead filter and an ion exchange system. Beet sugar is often labeled "granulated sugar.” It is becoming more prevalent in the U.S. because the federal government subsidizes it. But Jainism would not accept beets, because they are root vegetable. On the other hand, almost all the cane sugar requires the use of a specific filter to decolorize the sugar and absorb inorganic material from it. The filter may be bone char, granular carbon, or an ion exchange system. Domino, the largest sugar manufacturer in USA, uses bone char in the filtration process. The cane refineries of Savannah Foods, the second largest sugar manufacturer, also use bone char. California and Hawaiian (C&H) Sugar employs bone char filters as well as granular carbon and ion exchange filters. All these companies use the bone char in the refining process of brown sugar, powered sugar (sugar mixed with corn starch), and white sugar. Refined Sugar, producers of Jack Frost Sugar, uses a granular carbon. Florida Crystal sugar is a cane sugar that has not passed through the bone, either. Some labels of sugar packages seem to indicate that the product is “raw sugar," but all commercial sugar has undergone some refining. Genuine raw sugar, according to FDA regulations, is unfit for human consumption.
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An Ahimsa Crisis: You Decide
