Sucrose

Sucrose is ordinary table sugar, a double sugar made of one glucose and one fructose unit.

Sucrose: A pile of white granulated sugar crystals
  • Food science and baking chemistry

Sucrose is the chemical name for the sugar most people mean when they say sugar. It is a disaccharide, formed when a glucose unit and a fructose unit are linked together. It comes mainly from sugar cane and sugar beets, and it is refined by evaporation and recrystallization into white crystals. Granulated sugar is simply sucrose in a fine crystalline form.

Sucrose is used as table sugar and in soft drinks, pre-sweetened cereals and many other processed foods. When it is split into its two parts by hydrolysis it makes invert sugar, which is used in jelly, candy and fruit canning and is about 30% sweeter than table sugar. Baking texts also note that corn syrup and glucose are two of the most common ingredients used to prevent crystallization of the granulated sugar in candies and syrups.

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Written by VanillaGoods in our own words from these sources. Last reviewed October 15, 2026.

  1. 5.6: Disaccharides - Maltose, Lactose, and Sucrose, LibreTexts (UW-Whitewater, Chemistry in the Kitchen)
  2. Introduction to Baking and Pastries, LibreTexts (Chef John Folse Culinary Institute, Nicholls State University)