Sampling a Batch
A worker's height comes only to the bottom weld of the giant stainless vat. Here, a plug is taken from a batch about halfway done. The test area has a small sink so the worker can clean the plug and place it back into the vat.
The contents of the vat had just begun to crystallize. We tasted the sugary substance and were interested to find it tasted different that normal sugar. Not quite sugar yet.Barra Grande is an extremely clean operation.
Samples of the sugar are examined throughout the process. Rigid standards are maintained by testing at each stage of milling. The initial tests are for purity and sucrose content. More tests are continually run to ensure proper pH balance, temperature, color, and consistency as the sugar solution makes its way through the facility. Equipment and filtering materials are also monitored around the clock to ensure that they are working efficiently. Because it's 99.98% pure sucrose, refined sugar is one of the highest quality products found in your grocery store.
From here we walk downstairs to get a close-up of a centrifuge.