Turkish Food Codex issued by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs Communiqué on Methods of Analysis of Sugars for Human Consumption (Communiqué no: 2002 / 26) covers the analysis methods of sugar or white sugar, semi-white sugar, refined sugar, sugar solution and similar sugar products.

Loss of drying means the loss of mass resulting from drying of a substance. This communiqué, which was issued on the basis of the Turkish Food Codex Regulation, explained that the determination of water-soluble dry matter in sugar products should be carried out according to the third method given in the annex to the communiqué. This method is also referred to as refractometric method.

There are different analysis methods in the annex of the Communiqué. For example,

• First method: drying loss determination method
• Second method, determination of dry matter, vacuum oven method
• The third method is the method of detecting dry matter soluble in water

The third method is based on the detection of the water-soluble dry matter. This method, called refractometric method, is used to determine the amount of water soluble dry matter present in products such as sugar solution, white sugar solution, invert sugar solution and invert sugar syrup.

Refractometric method is a method used to make determinations such as concentration and amount of substance based on the difference of refractive index of any medium.

Analyzes to determine the loss of drying of sugar species are carried out within the scope of physical analyzes in authorized laboratories. During these analyzes, standards, general test methods and test criteria published by domestic and foreign organizations are followed. The standard for the determination of drying loss is:

• TS 861 White sugar (sucrose)

This standard covers crystal, sugar and powdered sugar and does not apply to raw sugar, brown sugar and the like. This standard is used for ash determination in white sugar, determination of solution color, determination of sulfur dioxide and determination of drying loss.