When was sugar found

At this time, it was regarded as very much a luxury. In the 15th century AD, European sugar was refined in Venice, confirmation that even then when quantities were small, it was difficult to transport sugar as a food grade product. In the same century, Columbus sailed to the Americas, and it is recorded that in he took sugar cane plants to grow in the Caribbean. The climate there was so good for the growth of the cane that an industry was quickly established. Sugar beet was first identified as a source of sugar in However, it was kept a secret until the Napoleonic wars at the start of the 19th century when Britain blockaded sugar imports to continental Europe.

Human physiology evolved on a diet containing very little sugar and virtually no refined carbohydrate. In fact, sugar probably entered into our diets by accident. Researchers are currently hunting for early evidence of sugarcane cultivation at the Kuk Swamp in Papua New Guinea, where the domestication of related crops such as taro and banana dates back to approximately 8,BC. The crop spread around the Eastern Pacific and Indian Oceans around 3, years ago, carried by Austronesian and Polynesian seafarers.

The first chemically refined sugar appeared on the scene in India about 2, years ago. From there, the technique spread east towards China, and west towards Persia and the early Islamic worlds, eventually reaching the Mediterranean in the 13th century.

Cyprus and Sicily became important centres for sugar production. Throughout the Middle Ages, it was considered a rare and expensive spice, rather than an everyday condiment.

The first place to cultivate sugarcane explicitly for large-scale refinement and trade was the Atlantic island of Madeira, during the late 15th century.

Then, it was the Portuguese who realised that new and favourable conditions for sugar plantations existed in Brazil, where a slave-based plantation economy was established. When Brazilian sugarcane was introduced in the Caribbean, shortly before , it led to the growth of the industry which came to feed the sugar craze of Western Europe.

This food — which nobody needed, but everyone craved — drove the formation of the modern of the world. There was a huge demand for labour to cultivate the massive sugar plantations in Brazil and the Caribbean. Grace Company developed the first industrial-scale conversion of bagasse into paper. The Sugar Research Foundation patented colorless sterile invert sugar. The first bagasse diffuser, based on the existing technology of Egyptian diffusers, was installed in South Africa.

December 12, marked the last sugar harvest in Maui. After more than a century, Hawaii will no longer produce sugar. Sugar beet and sugar cane yields continue to improve with modern varieties of the plants and advances in agricultural technology. Vermont M. Austin, Harry. History and Development of the Beet Sugar Industry. National Press Building, Washington D. Robert M. Lawrence Clayton, Grace: W. Get Social with MoreToSugar.