Mill White Sugar (ICUMSA 100–150)

Crystal & plantation white — the value white grade

Mill white, also traded as crystal white or plantation white, is sugar produced to a white grade at the mill itself rather than passed through a separate refinery. Colour runs ICUMSA 100 to 150 against refined white's 45 maximum, with polarisation typically 99.5° and above and moisture around 0.06%. Visually the difference is small — mill white looks white to the eye but dissolves to a very faintly straw-tinted solution rather than a water-clear one. Commercially the difference is significant, because skipping the refining pass takes real cost out, and mill white typically prices well below ICUMSA 45 for sugar that is chemically almost the same. India and Thailand are major sources alongside Brazil.

Buy mill white for everything that does not need water-clear solution: bakery, biscuits and confectionery where other ingredients dominate the colour, dairy and ice cream, sauces and condiments, industrial food processing and fermentation. In all of those the faint colour is invisible in the finished product and the saving against refined white goes straight to margin. It is the wrong grade for clear soft drinks, pale syrups, white icing and pharmaceutical work, where the tint would show and ICUMSA 45 exists precisely for that reason. The practical note is consistency: mill white is produced across many mills to a range rather than a single tight target, so colour can vary within the 100 to 150 band between shipments. If your process is sensitive, contract a narrower band rather than accepting the range. CBIL brokers mill white against SGS certification of colour, polarisation, moisture and ash, on FOB Indian, Thai and Brazilian ports, CFR and CIF terms.