Quality improvement of jaggery, a traditional sweetener, using bagasse activated carbon

Bagasse activated carbon (BAC) was used for the purification of raw cane juice (guarapo) to improve the quality of jaggery (panela), a healthy sweetener, due to its nutritional properties, widely consumed in many parts of the world. Ultrafiltration was used to purify the cane juice, for comparison and possible complementary purification treatment. A physicochemical characterization of the treated and untreated juices was done. The purified samples were used to produce jaggery. The results showed that the color removed from guarapo treated with BAC was 95.6% and the jaggery had a color close to white, with CIELAB system parameters of: L* = 74.9, a* = -3.0, b* = 15.8 and C* = 16.1, very different from the brown color of common commercial jaggery. Microbial counts of this jaggery after 3 months at ambient conditions were within the established limits. [Display omitted]