The use of bone char to filter cane sugar is interesting -- but something that I'm finding puzzling is that the above linked article specifically says that the bone char was used for sugar beet processing, but many other online sources consistently state that bone char is never used for sugar beet processing, only sugar cane processing. Did it used to be used for sugar beet processing but techniques changed?
Based on some reading, beet sugar refining is easier because of less impurities than cane sugar. So the modern technique for producing white beet sugar is to use vacuum evaporation to crystalize out the sugar out of beet juice leaving the impurities behind. Maybe before vacuum evaporation was invented beet sugar had to be undergo chemical processing similar to cane sugar to remove the impurities?
