# Sugar smelling odd - advice needed!



## Ekim (Feb 12, 2006)

Anyone else have their sugar start smelling - not the smell, but sort of similar too - feet?

It doesn't make it taste bad, and it's not a strong smell.

I keep it in a glass jar with a glass top that has a plastic/rubber seal to block out air.  But it doesn't make a difference.  I've kept it a few other ways, but it always happens.  Is it unavoidable?  I don't go around to other folks' homes to sniff their sugar.

Any advice is greatly appreciated.  This is annoying.


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## daisy (Feb 12, 2006)

I learned something recently. Apparently a lot of the sugar produced in America is made from sugar beets, and not from sugar cane. I'm told that beet sugar has a rather unpleasant smell. Perhaps that is the explanation.

This link might be of interest to you:

http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/harvest/msg010052029332.html?32


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## GB (Feb 12, 2006)

Sugar from cane or beets is chemically identical to each other so there should not be a smell from one, but not the other.


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## amber (Feb 12, 2006)

Maybe your sugar is absorbing the smell of the rubber seal?  I just keep mine in a plastic canister with a lid that does not block out air.  Never had any odor.


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## AllenOK (Feb 12, 2006)

That's what I'm thinking.  I keep my sugar in a plastic jar, plastic lid, no rubber seal.  I've never had a problem with an off odor.  I also keep a spare bag of sugar in my pantry, in the original paper bag, unopened.  I know it's not airtight.  I've never had a problem there either.

I think it's that rubber seal.


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## licia (Feb 12, 2006)

Something I've never heard of.


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## Gretchen (Feb 12, 2006)

Put a piece of saran wrap across the top so the rubber doesn't affect it. But I really don't think it is that either. Can you smell the rubber when you  put your face right next to it.


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## buckytom (Feb 13, 2006)

i'm not sure why your sugar is smelling, ekim, but i always go by my nose, and if something smells bad to me, i chuck it. conversely, i will eat things well past their expected due if something still smells ok, and i've never had a problem.
i would get new sugar, and a new container, and change the place you store it. it must be picking up the odor somewhere.

if you don't want to just discard it, you could also place a vanilla bean pod in the sugar to try to override the unpleasant smell.

unless your feet smell like vanilla.


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## Piccolina (Feb 13, 2006)

daisy said:
			
		

> I learned something recently. Apparently a lot of the sugar produced in America is made from sugar beets, and not from sugar cane. I'm told that beet sugar has a rather unpleasant smell. Perhaps that is the explanation.
> 
> This link might be of interest to you:
> 
> http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/harvest/msg010052029332.html?32


DH told me that they process a lot of sugar beet sugar near a place where he once lived in Italy, and that the air around the factory hads a very, very strong and (in his words) awful stentch to it. 

The only thing I've ever unexplicably had my sugar smell of is faintly like almond extract. Is there is any chance that your sugar is somehow picking up an odor from something strong (garlic, chilli powder, etc) that you may be keeping near the jar?


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## Ekim (Apr 3, 2006)

buckytom said:
			
		

> if you don't want to just discard it, you could also place a vanilla bean pod in the sugar to try to override the unpleasant smell.
> 
> unless your feet smell like vanilla.



No, I wish my feet did smell like vanilla!  (let's not go there...)

Still haven't figured this one out yet.  It happens in different containers and I'm pretty sure with different brands too.

I'll have to do some sleuthing, methinks.


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## Andy M. (Apr 3, 2006)

GB said:
			
		

> Sugar from cane or beets is chemically identical to each other so there should not be a smell from one, but not the other.


 
Right on.  Also, if the bag says 'Pure Cane Sugar', no beets were involved.  If you're getting a bad smell, the sugar is being contaminated.  Pure sugar doesn't smell bad.


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## ronjohn55 (Apr 4, 2006)

Piccolina said:
			
		

> DH told me that they process a lot of sugar beet sugar near a place where he once lived in Italy, and that the air around the factory hads a very, very strong and (in his words) awful stentch to it.


 
Yep, we've got a couple (beet) sugar mills in Michigan, and they sure can stink at times. Of course, the cane sugar plant in Maui wasn't much better...

I'm with the camp that says the sugar got the smell from an outside source though. The refined stuff doesn't have a smell to it, cane or beet. 

John


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## Michelemarie (Apr 4, 2006)

If it were me, I'd toss it.


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## Ekim (Apr 4, 2006)

Yeah, but there has to be some reason for it changing smells in different containers.  Like I said, I'll do some sleuthing.


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