Forum: islam.stackexchange.com
Tags: <halal-haram><food><animals>
Title: Is white sugar haram due to containing animal bone?
Question: White sugar contains animal bone which is responsible for the white color. That bone may not be a halal (if the animal may be killed as per the Islamic law). So is sugar haram or halal?

Answers:
sents: text: White sugar is not made out of, nor does it contain, bones.
text: Sugar (most sugar) is cane sugar, which comes from sugar canes.
text: It is then refined, and one of two things happens: The molasses is removed (and you get white sugar)
text: The molasses is not removed (and you get brown sugar)
text: Further refinement is what gives it that white colour and shine.
text: This is done through the use of a number of chemicals, and it may include filtering it through bone meal, although that appears to be something used historically and not currently.
text: If it doesn't contain bone meal, there's no problem.
text: What if, hypothetically, it did contain bone meal?
text: According to scholars, for the purity to change, one of these needs to change: The colour
text: The smell
text: The taste Since the white colour isn't from adding bone meal, but from the filtration process
text: , it doesn't affect the purity; not unless there's a significant amount that enters the sugar, even if the bone was from an animal that was haram to eat .
text: Here's a link to an article that talks about the sugar manufacturing process .
text: It mentions: [...]
text: the clarified syrup is decolorized by filtration through a bed of activated carbon; bone char was traditionally used in this role, but its use is no longer common.
text: (Emphasis mine.)
text: The original source is Wikipedia, which is referenced from the article itself.
text: Based on all of this, and Allah knows best, it's nothing to worry about.
text: If you're really concerned, you can always switch over to brown sugar, honey (which is popular in the sunnah for numerous health benefits), or other substitutes.
answer_details: author: islam.stackexchange.com/users/7/ashes999
score: 8
sents: text: Bone char (charcoal made from animal bones) is used to filter sugar and decolorize it.
text: It is not an ingredient in refined sugar and thus is not consumed.
text: So the question on whether it is halal to consume or not does not enter in the picture.
answer_details: author: islam.stackexchange.com/users/90/System Down
score: 5
sents: text: I am a Mechanical engineer, and have worked in all the sugar beet factories in England.
text: 1)
text: Animal bones were historically used to filter impurities as previously mentioned.
text: That method has been replaced with carbonataion, sulphatation and fine mesh filters.
text: There certainly will be no trace of animal bone in the final product (I am 100% sure of that !) 2) for some strange reason I remember an Imam visited the factory one day to bless the silos, therefore it is blessed (even though it doesn't need to be !)
text: glad to help.
answer_details: author: islam.stackexchange.com/users/7982/user7982
score: 3
sents: text: If it doesn't explicitly state that it contains animal bones then it's halal.
text: Otherwise if the sugar is from a country where the Muslims are in majority or the provider of the sugar is a Muslim as long as there is a likelihood that the shopkeeper has ascertained that it was slaughtered according to the shari‘a laws .
text: Else it's haram.
answer_details: author: islam.stackexchange.com/users/3487/Bleeding Fingers
score: 1
sents: text: Each and every company has some of the items as its ingredients.
text: And it has it publicly shown on the package of its.
text: Until you buy it from a shop that allows you to buy it in KGs.
text: Otherwise, each package has its ingredients written on it clearly, and you can read it.
text: Sometimes there is a big label of HALAL on it too.
text: Bone itself isn't haram, it is haram only if the animal died and then after sometime, you used it for some purpose.
text: If the animal isn't slaughtered in Islam way, even then the bone isn't halaal.
text: You need to slaughter the animal in a way that's according to Shariyat, actually in Shariyat you slaughter an animal in a way, in which it would feel the minimum amount of pain, and its soul would leave its body as soon as possible.
text: Letting him feel the pain for just an instance of time.
text: That's why Islamic way of Slaughter is necessary.
text: Otherwise the animal is Haraam.
text: Its flesh, bone everything is haram for us then A Sugar made out of that, is in turn haram too.
text: But otherwise you can use it just keep a note on this.
answer_details: author: islam.stackexchange.com/users/3051/Afzaal Ahmad Zeeshan
score: 1

Summary of the answers:
It is generally agreed that, whilst animal bone may have been historically used in the production of sugar, sugar does not currently contain any. As a result, sugar is not considered to be haram.
There is no problem as sugar contains no bone material at all.
It is generally agreed that, whilst animal bone may have been historically used in the production of sugar, sugar does not currently contain any. As a result, sugar is not considered to be haram.
White sugar is not made out of, nor does it contain, bones.  Most sugar is cane sugar, which comes from sugar canes. Also, if it doesn't explicitly state that it contains animal bones then it's halal.  If you are concerned, you can always switch over to brown sugar or honey or other substitutes.
There is no trace of animal bone in white sugar. Also, some sugar producers may even have the sugar silos blessed! If something does not explicitly state that it contains animal bones then it's halal.
White sugar does not contain animal bones, so the problem itself does not exist. However, it can be safely assumed that any product is halal if it does not contain any information about animal produce on the packaging. This is likely to be true in a Muslim-majority country.