White sugar comes from two sources: cane and beet. Beet sugar is refined but it never comes into contact with bone char. Bone char is made from cow bones and is sometimes during the refining process of cane sugar in the filters to whiten the sugar. Each refinery is different and below you will find a list of refineries that use bone char and those that do not.

Confectioner’s sugar (or powdered sugar) is made with refined white sugar and cornstarch. It may or may not be vegan depending on if the white sugar is can sugar and where it was refined.

Brown Sugar is refined white sugar with molasses added in. It may or may not be vegan depending on on if the white sugar is can sugar and where it was refined.

Fructose may or may not be refined using bone char. You will need to check with the refinery.

If you would prefer to use sugar substitutes, according to PETA Sucanat and turbinado sugar are never filtered using bone char.

Just to recap, if your white sugar is beet sugar you do not need to worry. If you use white sugar that is cane sugar, you want to make sure your sugar is not refined by a company that uses bone char during the refining process. You will want to avoid store brand white cane sugar because it is hard to know which refinery it came from. For confectioner’s and brown sugar that use white cane sugar as a base you will need to determine where it was refined. Here is a list of refineries.

Refineries that DO NOT use bone char:

Florida Crystals Refinery
P.O. Box 86
South Bay, FL 33493
407-996-9072
Labels: Florida Crystals

Refined Sugars Incorporated
One Federal St.
Yonkers, NY 10702
914-963-2400
Labels: Jack Frost, Country Cane, 4# Flow-Sweet

Pillsbury
Makes powdered brown sugar

Supreme Sugar Company (subsidiary of Archer Daniels Midland)
P.O. Box 56009
New Orleans, LA 70156
504-831-0901
Labels: Supreme, Southern Bell, Rouse’s Markets

Refineries that DO use bone char:

Domino
1114 Ave. of the Americas
25th Fl.
New York, NY 10036
212-789-9700

Savannah Foods
P.O. Box 335
Savannah, GA 31402
912-234-1261

California & Hawaiian Sugar Company (with the exception of its Washed Raw Sugar)
830 Loring Ave.
Crockett, CA 94525-1104
510-787-2121

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Some vegans argue that insects are not conscious of pain and therefore products such as honey and silk do not need to be avoided. They also argue that even if insects feel pain, the making of honey involves no more pain than then harvesting of vegetables since the harvesting and transportation of vegetables causes pain to insects.

Other vegans disagree with the idea that insects do not feel pain. They also disagree with the idea that the pain the feel is acceptable and consider honey to be a non-vegan food.

Essentially, the choice is a personal matter; one that each vegan will have to decide on his/her own. If you do decide that honey can be included in your vegan diet, please keep in mind that not all vegans will share the same view. So if you make food to share with friends and it contains honey, make sure they know.

You are reading Is Honey Vegan?. This post is the property of Vegan Resource © 2008.

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