BEET QUALITY STUDIES USING DRIED BEET SAMPLES

Dried beet samples from 29 European and 2 Canadian sugar factories wer e analyzed for cations after wet ashing, and for chloride and nitrate after water extraction. The ionic spectra were compared. These anions show a proportionality with sodium and are inversly proportional to ca lcium. Sortings by potassium or magnesium give contrary rankings of co untries. High potassium within the cation spectrum indicates low ash c ontent on dry substance, in contrast to sodium. In comparison with the other countries, Austrian beet have the lowest portion of alkalies in the cation sum and therefore the highest demand for alkali addition i n processing due to the cation spectrum.