Fructans have been underestimated in the Louisiana sugarcane industry

For over 100 years, sugar technologists around the world have focused on the glucose polysaccharide dextran as the major polysaccharide (dextran also occurs as short-chain oligosaccharides) causing processing problems in both sugarcane and sugar beet factories. Fructans are fructose poly- and oligosaccharides connected by (beta 2 -> 6 and beta 2 -> 4 glycosidic linkages; however, compared to dextran, the amounts of fructans in factory products are much less known. A large problem has been the lack and/or complexity of a specific analytical method to measure fructans. Using a new enzymatic (research) method that incorporates newly available recombinant enzymes, which is available as a kit from Megazyme, considerable amounts of fructans were consistently found in crusher juices, rotary screen juices, massecuites, molasses, and raw sugars, with final molasses containing >9000 mg/kg or ppm/Brix. The results were verified by breaking down the fructans with inulinase and measuring the resultant breakdown products with ion chromatography. Fructans were strongly related to the concentration of sucrose in upstream and downstream factory products and a contributor to Haze dextran values. A major source of fructans is the microbial deterioration of sugarcane either outside or inside the factory, or both. Identification of the microorganisms causing the formation of fructans is urgently needed. Future critical research is also required to ascertain (i) the molecular sizes of fructans in cane products, (ii) how to measure and control fructans at the factory, and (iii) what other process parameters are affected, e.g., pol values, crystal shapes and crystallization rates, viscosity, etc.?