Contribution to the improvement of maple sugar production Original Research Article

The aim of this study was to convert maple syrup of grade D into market-quality granulated sugar by applying principles used in the sugar industry. The initial syrup and mother-liquor were characterized using the Brix degree, invert sugar content, the purity of the mother-liquor and the evolution of its supersaturation coefficient during the crystal growth period. The influence of the four processing parameters, that is the vacuum pressure in the evaporator, the syrup’s initial invert sugar percentage, mixing speed and crystal growing time on the crystallization yield, sugar particle size and sugar color index (b∗) was studied. This approach was used to obtain information about the crystallization of granulated maple syrup that is unknown in traditional maple syrup production. Electronic microscopy was also used to obtain adequate information about the crystal morphology at the end of the crystal growth period.