Sorry the Siucra logo's all fucked up at the top there, the old jpg I had disappeared into cyberspace sometime in the 2 years or so since I've checked on the site and they've got a cunning anti-logo-theft measure on their new site. anyway:
A lot of people who are thinking about being vegan know that vegans don't eat refined sugar (white sugar), but don't know why. It's because some kinds of white sugar are refined using 'bone-char' (also called bone black), which is charred animal bones. However, the use of bone char isn't common practice in the EU, so as a general guide if something is made in the EU it's probably safe. If you're not sure where the sugar in a product is derived from you should contact the manufacturers. I wrote to Siucra to find out about their sugar refinement process and got the following reply:
Re: Sugar Production Process
Dear Fionnuala,
Thank you for your letter re above.
I can confirm that we do not use "bonechar" in our production process. No
other
animal derivatives are used in our production processes.
With the exception of Instant Royal Icing, all Siucra products are suitable
for vegans.
This product contains milk proteins and egg albumen as
ingredients and these are listed
on the ingredient list.
Itrust that the above information answers your queries, but should you
require any
further information, please let me know.
Yours sincerely,
T.C. QUILL
Quality Control Officer