Sugar in the Raw is processed. Despite the name, it goes through multiple industrial steps including crushing, heating, chemical clarification, evaporation, crystallization, centrifuging, and drying before it reaches your kitchen. It skips the final refining stage that white sugar undergoes, which is why it retains a light brown color and a thin coating of molasses, but calling it “raw” or “unprocessed” is misleading.
How Sugar in the Raw Is Made
Sugar in the Raw is a brand of turbinado sugar, which is produced in large-scale sugar mills using the same initial process as white sugar. The journey from sugar cane stalk to golden crystal involves at least six distinct industrial steps.
First, the cane is broken apart using revolving knives, shredders, or crushers, then run through multiple sets of three-roller mills to squeeze out the juice. Water is applied between milling stages to extract as much sugar as possible. The resulting liquid is green-brown, full of plant matter, organic acids, and other impurities.
Next comes clarification. Lime and heat (around 200°F) are added to neutralize acids in the juice and form a heavy precipitate that can be separated out. This is a chemical treatment, not fundamentally different from what happens in a refinery. After clarification, the juice passes through a series of evaporators, typically five in sequence, that boil off water until the liquid becomes a thick syrup of about 65% solids.
That syrup then enters vacuum pans, where it’s evaporated further until it becomes supersaturated. Seed crystals are introduced to trigger crystallization, and the mixture (called massecuite) grows until the pan is full. High-speed centrifuges spin the crystals, flinging off the surrounding liquid (molasses) while a water wash cleans the crystal surfaces. Finally, the sugar is dried in industrial fluidized bed or spouted bed dryers and cooled for packaging.
The only step turbinado sugar skips is the final refining process, where raw sugar is dissolved again, filtered through bone char or activated carbon, and recrystallized into the pure white crystals most people recognize. That’s a meaningful difference, but it doesn’t make turbinado sugar unprocessed. It makes it slightly less processed than white sugar.
What “Raw” Actually Means to the FDA
The FDA defines “raw sugar” as an intermediate product that leaves the sugar mill on its way to further refining. In the agency’s own language, raw sugar is generally “unsuitable for human food use because it contains extraneous impurities which are removed in the refining process.” The FDA will take legal action against raw sugar sold for human consumption if it contains those impurities.
Sugar in the Raw and other turbinado products sold in stores are not truly raw by that definition. They’ve been cleaned, centrifuged, and dried enough to be safe for eating. They occupy a middle ground: more processed than what the FDA calls “raw sugar,” but less processed than fully refined white sugar. The word “raw” on the package is a branding choice, not a regulatory classification.
How It Compares to White Sugar Nutritionally
The thin layer of molasses left on turbinado crystals (less than 3.5% by weight) gives the sugar its golden color, slightly larger crystal size, and mild caramel flavor. That molasses does contain trace minerals like calcium and iron, but the amounts are negligible. A teaspoon of turbinado sugar provides less than 1% of your daily recommended intake for either mineral.
Calorie content is essentially identical to white sugar at around 16 to 18 calories per teaspoon. Your body breaks down turbinado sugar the same way it breaks down white sugar: into glucose and fructose, absorbed into the bloodstream at roughly the same rate. From a metabolic standpoint, there is no meaningful health advantage to choosing one over the other.
Why the “Raw” Label Sticks
The appeal of Sugar in the Raw comes from the assumption that less processing means a more natural, healthier product. That instinct makes sense for many foods, where processing strips away fiber, vitamins, or beneficial compounds. With sugar, though, the raw material is sugar cane juice, and the goal of every processing step is to isolate the sucrose. Stopping one step short of full refining preserves a tiny fraction of molasses but doesn’t preserve anything your body needs in nutritionally relevant amounts.
If you prefer turbinado sugar for its taste or texture, those are perfectly good reasons to use it. The coarser crystals hold up well as a topping on baked goods and add a light toffee note that white sugar doesn’t. Just know that “raw” on the label describes a marketing position, not the absence of processing.