Impact of extraneous matter on post-harvest sucrose losses and quality parameters in sugarcane

The extraneous matter is defined in the sugar industry as plant material, other than sugar cane stalks, rich in sucrose, in association with mineral matter consisting soil particles and stones. The extraneous matter reduces the levels of sucrose and interferes with the sugarcane factory processing. The level of extraneous matter depends on the cutting system and sugarcane variety. This study elucidates the impact of extraneous matter on the level of sucrose losses from sugar cane harvested under conventional harvesting systems (manual harvesting) and mechanical harvesting at Manuelita Sugar Mill (Colombia) using the sugarcane variety CC 85-92.