Some vegetarians--usually strict vegans--will not consume

sugar. This is because sugar is often whitened with bone

char from cows.



If you are a vegetarian and you want to continue eating

products that contain sugar, but do not want to cause

suffering in the process, you have a number of options.



Your first option is to only consume products made with

beet sugar. There are two major sources of sugar in the

United States: beet sugar and cane sugar. Cane sugar is

often whitened with bone char from cows; in contrast, beet

sugar is never whitened with bone char.



So, if you want to completely avoid the bone char, you can

do so by eating only beet sugar. The only challenge--and it

is a big one--is finding out which foods contain beet sugar

and which foods contain cane sugar.



To make things more complex, you can also consume a number

of types of cane sugar, as long as you are willing to find

out what the source of the sugar is.



You can do this in a lot of cases by looking at the

nutritional panel on food before you buy it. If it says

fructose or dextrose, the sugar is from a plant source

(either beet or corn). If it says sucrose, it could be from

a number of sources, which could include bone char-whitened

cane sugar.



Now, if you are cooking with sugar, you can personally

verify that is bone-char free by purchasing from the

following companies, which have publicly-stated that they

do not use bone-char: Florida Crystals Refinery, Imperial

Sugar Company, Irish Sugar Ltd., Sugar In the Raw (which is

also less-refined), and American Crystal Sugar Company.



If you can’t find these brands, but want to avoid consuming

bone-char sugar if possible, you can avoid these brands,

which have publicly-stated that they do use bone-char:

Domino, Savannah Foods, and C&H Sugar Company.





Investigation