Classification of various types of sugar products by mineral composition

Various types of sugar products were classified by measuring their mineral compositions. As a result, the sugar products could be classified according to the results of principal component analysis (PCA) and cluster analysis of the mineral compositions. It also became possible to distinguish between kokuto (black sugar) from China and kokuto from Okinawa, which were classified into the same group in the PCA using a taste sensing system in the authors' previous report. These results agree with the previous report showing that the synthetic variables obtained by PCA of taste information values by the three sensors of a taste sensing system were correlated with the kokuto taste indexes, which indicate the taste intensity of kokuto, and that sugar products can be broadly classified into three groups. Consequently, the taste of sugar products can be now predicted from their mineral compositions.