Peeling Sugarbeets by Use of High Pressure Steam

Abstract

ABSTRACf A high pressure steam peeling technique was used successfully to peel uncrowned and crowned sugar­ beets. Treatments of 40-60 seconds with 1825 kPa (250 psig) steam followed by mechanical brushing with a stiff nylon brush produced uncrowned peeled beets with only minor amounts of skin or peel still intact. For these treatments, peeling weight losses of 3.5­ 5.8% were obtained resulting in losses of 1.8-2.8% of the sugar in the original beets to the peel fraction. Crowned beets could be peeled after a shorter steam treatment time (20-30 sec). For crowned beets, peel and sugar losses were 2.9-3.9% and 1.3-1.7%, respec­ tively. The peeled beets were lower than the peel fraction by factors of 3 or more in ash, nitrogen, sodium, potassium, calcium, and magnesium con­ tent. Brei juice and thin juice purities from peeled uncrowned and peeled crowned beets were up to 1.6% (relative) higher than extracts from the unpeeled control beets. Color values of thin juice from the peeled beets were not significantly different than those obtained from the control beets. All peel frae­ tions were low in sugar (28-41 %, dry basis) and pro­ duced thin juice with low purities (53.2-75.5%) and high color values (2000-7500 ICUMSA).