| Abstract: Since the 1991 campaign, the use of formalin in Austrian sugar factories has been completely abandoned. This originates on the one hand from a management-order and on the other hand from the effort to improve pulp pressing with the aid of microbiological acid formation in the extraction process. The advantage of well-pressed pulp is greatest if the acid is formed from glucose and fructose and not from sucrose. In this case the fermentation is merely taking the place of the conversion of the monosaccharides to acid in the juice purification. The results of monosaccharide balances determined in extraction plants show bacterial activity variants, ranging from sucrose breakdown almost exclusively to principally invert sugar breakdown. Comparable fermentation patterns have been found in laboratory tests and with pure isolated bacteria cultures. Extrection temperatures above 70°C have been found to favour the decomposition of monosaccharides by thermophilic bacilli.
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