What is thick juice?
At Cosun Beet Company, we process sugar beets into crystal sugar. During the beet campaign, which runs from September until the end of January, we process 75% of all beet deliveries directly into crystal sugar. The remaining 25% is stored as thick juice. Thick juice is essentially water with a sugar concentration of 68% and represents the intermediate stage before crystal sugar is produced.
Storage in large tanks
We store the thick juice in large tanks next to our factories in Dinteloord, Vierverlaten, and Anklam. This allows us to spread production and maintain sufficient sugar stocks throughout the year. Especially in Dinteloord, the thick juice tanks are clearly visible from the road. During the beet campaign, the thick juice is pumped to these tanks via a wide underground pipeline.
Thick juice refining
From approximately the third day of the beet campaign, the tanks begin to be filled. By the end of the beet campaign, the tanks are filled right up to the top. With all tanks in the Netherlands (Dinteloord and Vierverlaten combined), this amounts to around 480 million kilograms of thick juice. During thick juice refining, the thick juice is transported back to the factory through the same pipeline. There, it is reheated, causing the remaining water to evaporate and crystal sugar to form within a few hours. This process lasts about seven weeks, from May to June.
From watery to syrupy
When the thick juice is pumped to the tanks, it is still warm from the evaporation process that concentrates thin juice (water with 17% sugar) into thick juice. At that point, it is a watery brown liquid. As it cools in the tank, it gradually becomes more viscous, eventually reaching a thickness comparable to syrup used for making lemonade.
Preserving quality
Thick juice naturally remains stable thanks to its high sugar concentration. We do not add anything to preserve it over the long term. However, we do maintain the pH level and condition the air inside the tanks. This prevents water from forming on top of the thick juice, which could reduce the sugar concentration and increase the risk of infection.
Major cleaning
Once all the thick juice has been emptied from the tanks, a thorough cleaning begins. A dedicated cleaning team works on this throughout the summer. Everyone works hard to ensure everything is ready for the next beet campaign, when the tanks are once again filled with fresh thick juice.