Did You Know That Some Sugar is Refined Using Animal Bones?

During the final purification process, cane sugar (but not beet sugar) is filtered through activated carbon (charcoal) which may be of animal, vegetable, or mineral origin. Over half of the cane refineries in the United States use bone char (charcoal made from animal bones) as their activated carbon source.

The bone char used in this filtering process is so far removed from its animal source and because none of the charcoal actually becomes part of the finished product, Jewish dietary laws still deem that cane sugar processed in this method is kosher pareve, meaning that it contains no meat or milk in any form as an ingredient. A number of vegans disagree with this perspective.

Beet sugar is not processed with charcoal but is usually labeled as "sugar" (not "beet sugar"). If you can find "beet sugar" on the package it is truly vegan. Also, several companies claim that none of their branded sugar uses any animal byproducts in its production. For instance, Florida Crystals claims on their website that their sugar is "certified kosher, with no animal by-products used anywhere in the process".