Evaluation of physicochemical characteristics of unrefined brown sugars of different sugar beet factories in north-west of Iran as substitute of white sugar

White sugar is one of the most used raw materials in production of different food staffs, But researches showed thatconsumption of white sugar is related to occurrence of different diseases such as diabetes, obesity and etc. The aim of this research was to study physicochemical and antioxidant properties of nonrefined sugar-beet brown sugar produced in Iran as substitute for white sugar. For this purpose, nonrefined brown sugar samples were supplied from three large sugar factories in north-west of Iran and physicochemical properties of the samples such as total soluble solids, moisture, total ash, total hardness, sucrose content, purity, pH, protein, total phenol, total anthocyanin, antioxidant activity, apparent color and solution color were studied. White sugar was used as control. The results showed that protein, total phenol, total anthocyanin and antioxidant activity of the brown sugar samples were about 7.85 to 9.85 mg BSA/g sample, 0.55 to 0.77 mg GAE/g sample, 1.028 to 187/11.187 mg/kg sample and 4.07 to 4.46 per 10 g from kg of brown sugar solution respectively. Also, solution color and the apparent color of unrefined brown sugars were 4285.25-9399.59 ICU and 127-103 CTN respectively. It was concluded that unrefined brown sugar has higher nutrition value in comparison to white sugar.