What Is ICUMSA? The Sugar Colour Scale and Grade Chart

The ICUMSA figure quoted against a parcel of sugar — 45, 100, 150, 600, 1200 — is the single number that decides what the sugar is, what it can be used for and what it costs. This page explains what that number measures, how it is measured, and how the grades compare.

What does ICUMSA stand for?

ICUMSA stands for the International Commission for Uniform Methods of Sugar Analysis. ICUMSA is a worldwide body that brings together the National Committees for Sugar Analysis of more than thirty member countries. Work is carried out under subject headings, each headed by a Referee, and methods are given tentative, Official or Accepted status according to how far they have met the Commission's requirements.

ICUMSA does not grade sugar, does not certify sugar and does not trade sugar. ICUMSA publishes the reference methods by which sugar is measured. The sugar trade then borrowed one of those measurements — colour — and used it as the name of a grade. That is why a cargo is described as "ICUMSA 45" rather than by any quality label ICUMSA itself issues.

What does the ICUMSA number measure?

An ICUMSA number states the measured colour of a sugar, expressed in ICUMSA units. The ICUMSA number does not state sucrose content, crystal size, moisture, ash or country of origin.

Colour in sugar comes mainly from residual molasses and other non-sugar material left behind after refining. Because of that, the ICUMSA figure is read in the trade as a proxy for how far a sugar has been refined. A low number means a white, heavily refined sugar. A high number means a darker, less refined sugar.

It is worth being exact about this, because the trade is routinely loose with it. An ICUMSA figure is a measurement of colour, not of purity. Colour correlates with refinement, and refinement correlates with purity, which is why the number is useful as a shorthand — but sucrose content is measured separately, by polarisation, and the two figures can move independently. A high-polarisation raw sugar is both very pure and very dark at the same time.

Every other property a buyer cares about — polarisation, ash, moisture, granulation — is a separate measurement, contracted separately and reported separately. The ICUMSA figure on its own is not a specification.

Is a lower ICUMSA number better?

A lower ICUMSA number is not better in itself. A lower ICUMSA number means only that the sugar is whiter.

The right grade is the one that matches the application. A soft-drink bottler or a pharmaceutical manufacturer needs the low colour of ICUMSA 45, because colour carries through into the finished product. A refinery, a distillery or an ethanol plant buys ICUMSA 600 to 1200 on purpose, because a refined white sugar would carry the cost of refining that the buyer's own process is about to repeat. Paying for colour an application does not require is simply a higher cost per tonne.

How is ICUMSA colour measured?

ICUMSA colour is measured in a laboratory by spectrophotometry. ICUMSA colour is not judged by eye and not read off a printed colour card.

For a white sugar, the procedure is as follows:

1. A weighed sample is dissolved in water to a known concentration.

2. The solution is adjusted to pH 7.0, because the apparent colour of a sugar solution changes with its acidity.

3. The solution is filtered through a 0.45 micrometre membrane, so that suspended matter is not read as colour.

4. The absorbance of the clear solution is read in a spectrophotometer at a wavelength of 420 nanometres.

5. The reading is converted into ICUMSA units from the measured absorbance, the optical path length of the measuring cell and the concentration of the solution.

The procedure for white sugar is ICUMSA Method GS2/3-10, published in the ICUMSA Methods Book. Where a contract or a certificate names a colour figure, it should name the method alongside it.

Darker raw and brown sugars are not measured the same way. Those are measured by a reflectance procedure and reported in RBU. Two consequences follow for anyone writing a contract. A colour figure is only meaningful alongside the method that produced it, and a solution-colour figure and a reflectance figure are not interchangeable.

The ICUMSA scale, band by band

The bands above are the grades in routine trade, not a complete enumeration of the scale: colour is a continuous measurement, and a contract can specify any value. ICUMSA 100 and ICUMSA 150 are frequently quoted together as a single "ICUMSA 100-150" band, and both are commonly called crystal sugar.

ICUMSA sugar grades compared

Every grade below is a grade this site supplies. Figures are given only where they are published; where a figure is lot-specific or contract-specific, the cell reads "On request" rather than carrying an estimate.

The rows are ordered from the lowest colour to the highest, and the two grades whose ICUMSA value is contract-specific sit in the refined band. A full specification, packaging options and a current certificate of analysis for a given lot are available on request for every grade listed.

Published purity figures by grade

Sucrose content and polarisation are closely related but are not the same statement. Polarisation is a specific measurement, described below.

What is ICUMSA 45?

ICUMSA 45 is refined white cane sugar whose measured colour is 45 ICUMSA units. ICUMSA 45 is the lowest-colour grade in routine international trade and is known in the trade as London White.

The ICUMSA 45 grade supplied here is a high-purity grade with 99.8% sucrose content, a snow-white colour, and fine crystals that dissolve readily and keep well because of a low moisture content of around 0.04%. ICUMSA 45 has a neutral odour and combines easily with other substances, which is why ICUMSA 45 is specified for soft drinks, pastries and confectionery and also used as an excipient in cosmetic and pharmaceutical production. Full specifications are on the ICUMSA 45 sugar page.

What is the difference between ICUMSA 45 and ICUMSA 100?

The difference between ICUMSA 45 and ICUMSA 100 is colour, and the degree of refining behind that colour.

ICUMSA 45 measures 45 ICUMSA units and is snow white. ICUMSA 100 measures 100 ICUMSA units, is nearly white rather than snow white, and is the less processed of the two — refined enough for human consumption, but without the final refining stages that take a sugar down to 45. ICUMSA 100 as supplied here is a high-pol grade at 99.50% minimum, with ash content up to 0.15% and moisture content up to 0.10%.

Application decides which of the two a buyer specifies. ICUMSA 45 is chosen where the lowest available colour is required and carries through into the finished product. ICUMSA 100 is chosen for high-volume food production, baking, table use and beverage manufacturing, where an over-refined sugar adds cost without adding function, and it comes at a lower cost per tonne. Specifications are on the ICUMSA 100 cane sugar page.

What is ICUMSA 35?

ICUMSA 35 is ultra-refined white sugar whose measured colour is 35 ICUMSA units, which places ICUMSA 35 below ICUMSA 45 and at the lowest-colour end of the commercial scale. ICUMSA 35 is very high-purity sucrose: its content is purer and its grains are drier and clearer than crystal white sugar. Few suppliers hold ICUMSA 35, because the grade exists for applications that specify a colour below refined white rather than for general food manufacturing. Specifications are on the refined ICUMSA 35 sugar page.

What is ICUMSA 150?

ICUMSA 150 is partially refined cane sugar whose measured colour is 150 ICUMSA units. ICUMSA 150 is off-white with a pleasant caramel note, is suitable for human consumption without further refining, and is used in baking and general food production. ICUMSA 150 is quoted in the trade as crystal sugar, and sometimes as Special Extra Crystal; ICUMSA 100 and ICUMSA 150 are frequently contracted together as an "ICUMSA 100-150" band.

What is ICUMSA 600 and ICUMSA 1200?

ICUMSA 600 and ICUMSA 1200 are raw cane sugars that have retained part of their natural molasses layer, which is what makes them brown and what places them at the high end of the ICUMSA scale.

ICUMSA 1200 is the darker of the two and carries the higher molasses content. ICUMSA 1200 is bought for bioethanol, alcoholic beverages and animal feed, and is refined further before use in demanding applications. ICUMSA 600 is also brown, has larger crystalline elements and carries molasses at a lower concentration than ICUMSA 1200. ICUMSA 600 supports caramelisation, syrup production and spirit production.

Because the final refining stage is left to the buyer, raw grades generally carry a lower cost per tonne than refined white sugars. The grade supplied here is quoted as 600-1200 RBU, grade E: brown to golden brown, unrefined, bought in bulk as refinery feedstock, as an input for fermentation and distillation including ethanol production, and as an industrial ingredient where colour is not a constraint. Specifications are on the raw brown cane sugar page.

What is VHP sugar?

VHP sugar is raw cane sugar sold on its polarisation. VHP stands for Very High Polarisation.

VHP sugar is unrefined and retains part of its natural molasses, so VHP sugar is dark; in Brazilian trade practice VHP is quoted in the ICUMSA 600 to 1500 range and is also called simply raw sugar. VHP sugar exists for refineries: the buyer's refinery removes the remaining colour and non-sugar material and produces refined white sugar from it. VHP is the form in which the great majority of internationally traded Brazilian raw sugar moves.

The name describes the grade's defining property but not its value. The polarisation of a particular VHP lot is stated on that lot's certificate of analysis, and that figure, not the grade name, is what a contract should reference.

What is the difference between raw and refined cane sugar?

Raw cane sugar is sugar that has been crystallised out of cane juice but has not yet had its remaining colour and non-sugar material removed. Refined cane sugar is raw sugar that has been through that second stage.

The sequence for cane is:

1. Pressing the sugarcane to extract the juice.

2. Boiling the juice until it thickens and the sugar begins to crystallise.

3. Spinning the crystals in a centrifuge to remove the syrup, which produces raw sugar.

4. Shipping the raw sugar to a refinery, where it is washed and filtered to remove the remaining non-sugar ingredients and colour.

5. Crystallising, drying and packaging the refined crystal white sugar.

The ICUMSA figure is how the trade tells raw from refined. Raw grades sit at the high end of the scale, refined grades at the low end, and the point at which one becomes the other is set by whether the refinery stage has happened, not by a threshold on the scale.

Trade terms used alongside an ICUMSA figure

An ICUMSA figure is one line of a specification. These are the others that appear in a sugar contract.

Polarisation (pol)

Polarisation is the sucrose content of a sugar, determined by measuring how far a solution of that sugar rotates the plane of polarised light in a polarimeter or saccharimeter. Polarisation is reported in degrees or as a percentage, and a polarisation of 99.50% means 99.50% sucrose as measured by the polarimetric method. Polarisation and ICUMSA colour are independent parameters: polarisation says how much of the material is sucrose, and ICUMSA says how much colour the material carries. A sugar can be high-pol and dark at the same time, which is precisely what VHP raw sugar is.

Ash content

Ash content is the inorganic mineral residue that remains after a sugar sample is incinerated, expressed as a percentage of mass. In practice the sugar trade does not burn the sample: ash is routinely determined as conductivity ash, calculated from the electrical conductivity of a sugar solution, because dissolved mineral salts conduct and sucrose does not. Conductivity ash is conventionally reported as a percentage expressed to three decimal places, and it is one of the inputs used in weighting a grade. The ICUMSA 100 grade supplied here is specified at ash of 0.15% maximum.

Moisture content

Moisture content is the water held in and on the crystal, expressed as a percentage of mass and normally determined by loss on drying. Moisture matters commercially for three reasons: water promotes caking and so affects handling and flow, water shortens shelf life, and water is mass the buyer pays for but cannot use. The ICUMSA 45 grade supplied here carries moisture of around 0.04%, and ICUMSA 100 is specified at 0.10% maximum.

RBU

RBU stands for Reference Base Units, the unit in which the colour of raw and brown sugars is reported when colour is determined by reflectance rather than by the colour of a filtered solution. Raw and brown sugars are measured this way because they are too dark for routine solution-colour measurement. The raw brown grade supplied here is quoted as 600-1200 RBU. An RBU figure and a solution-colour figure in ICUMSA units are both colour measurements, but they come from different procedures and should not be treated as interchangeable without stating which procedure produced the number.

Certificate of analysis

A certificate of analysis, abbreviated CoA, is a document issued for one identified lot or shipment that lists the measured values for the parameters the contract specifies — typically colour, polarisation, ash and moisture, and whatever else has been contracted. A certificate of analysis is lot-specific and dated. A certificate of analysis is not a general product datasheet, and a datasheet is not a substitute for one: the figures a buyer is contracting on are the figures on the certificate for the lot being shipped. Certificates of analysis for the grades listed on this page are available on request.

ICUMSA certificate

An ICUMSA certificate is a laboratory report stating the colour of a specific lot of sugar, measured by an ICUMSA method and expressed in ICUMSA units. The term is widely used in sugar trade documentation, and it is widely misread.

An ICUMSA certificate is not issued by ICUMSA. ICUMSA publishes methods; ICUMSA does not inspect cargo, does not test lots and does not certify products. The certificate is issued by an independent inspection or analytical laboratory that has applied an ICUMSA method. For the same reason, no trading house, exporter or mill is "ICUMSA certified" or "ICUMSA approved": ICUMSA's membership consists of national committees for sugar analysis, not of companies. Any supplier claiming ICUMSA accreditation is describing something that does not exist. What a supplier can legitimately provide is the laboratory's report, naming the laboratory, the lot and the method used.

Is the ICUMSA scale applied the same way in every market?

The measurement is the same everywhere; the names attached to the measured values are not.

An ICUMSA number is a laboratory result, and a laboratory result does not vary by jurisdiction. The commercial grade labels built on top of those results do vary: specifications published for different markets have attached different grade names to the same colour bands, and the practice has been the subject of long-standing discussion in the trade. In Brazil, the reading confirmed by the Institute of Sugar and Alcohol is the straightforward one — the lower the figure, the whiter the sugar — and that is the reading quoted here.

The practical consequence for a buyer is the same in every market. A contract should specify the measured parameters and the methods used to obtain them, and acceptance should rest on the certificate of analysis for the lot shipped. A contract that specifies only a grade name has specified less than it appears to.

What determines the price of ICUMSA 45 sugar?

The price of ICUMSA 45 sugar is a futures price plus a differential, and it changes daily.

Internationally traded refined white sugar is priced against the London No. 5 white sugar futures contract, and raw sugar against the New York No. 11 raw sugar contract. A quotation for a physical cargo is that benchmark plus or minus a differential that reflects grade and colour, origin and mill, packaging, lot size, delivery terms and port, shipment window, and payment and inspection terms. Freight and currency move independently of the benchmark and move the landed cost with them.

For that reason this page does not print a price per tonne. Any figure published on a reference page is wrong within days of being written, and a stale number is worse than none. A current quotation requires a volume, a destination port and a delivery basis; contact us with those three and a price can be given against the day's market.

What is the HS code for ICUMSA 45 sugar?

Cane and beet sugar in solid form is classified under Harmonised System heading 1701. Within that heading, raw cane sugar without added flavouring or colouring falls under subheadings 1701.13 and 1701.14, raw beet sugar under 1701.12, and refined white sugar — the heading under which ICUMSA 45 and the other refined grades fall — under 1701.99, as sugar other than raw and other than sugar containing added flavouring or colouring matter, which is 1701.91.

The Harmonised System is standardised to six digits. Beyond six digits every country extends the nomenclature with its own tariff lines, duty rates and quota arrangements, and sugar is one of the most heavily managed agricultural lines in most tariff schedules. The operative code for a shipment is therefore the national line in the importing country's tariff, which should be confirmed with the importer's customs broker before the contract is signed.

Which ICUMSA grade should a buyer specify?

The grade follows the application, and the application usually settles the question on its own.

Choose a low ICUMSA number — 35 or 45 — when colour carries through into the finished product: soft drinks and clear beverages, confectionery, pharmaceutical and cosmetic formulations. Choose 100 or 150 when the sugar is an ingredient in a product whose own colour dominates, which covers most baking, general food production and table use, and where the lower cost per tonne of a less refined grade is real money at volume. Choose a raw grade at 600 and above when the buyer's own process will remove the colour anyway: refining, fermentation, distillation and ethanol production.

Then specify the rest of the line. A colour figure with a measurement method, a polarisation, maximum ash and moisture, granulation, packaging, and a certificate of analysis for the lot shipped together constitute a specification. An ICUMSA number alone does not.

Sources

• ICUMSA Methods Book — the authoritative text for every method referenced here, including GS2/3-10 for the colour of white sugar. Published by the International Commission for Uniform Methods of Sugar Analysis, icumsa.org.

• Codex Alimentarius CXS 212-1999, Standard for Sugars — the international food standard covering white sugar, plantation or mill white sugar, and raw cane sugar.

• ICE Futures — the London No. 5 white sugar contract and the New York No. 11 raw sugar contract, whose published specifications define the deliverable grades the physical market prices against.

• Comex Stat, Brazilian Ministry of Development, Industry and Trade — the official source for Brazilian export volumes by NCM code and destination.

Where this page states a figure for a grade we supply, that figure is our own published specification and is certified per lot on the certificate of analysis. Where it describes the ICUMSA scale or its methods, the Methods Book is the authority and should be consulted in preference to any secondary source, including this one.

Request a specification

Specifications, packaging options and a certificate of analysis for any of the six grades on this page are available on request. Contact us with the grade, the volume and the destination port.