Unrefined cane and palm sugar produced in Asia comes from cane juice and from the sap of the palm tree. The iron content and its chemical forms of such unrefined sugar on the market were studied. The iron content was relatively high, although it varied from product to product. The amounts of soluble and ionic iron were measured in each sugar product, over 50% of ionic iron being the ferrous type. The presence of ferrous iron in unrefined sugar is attributable to the reducing activity that results from the non-enzymic browning reaction of reducing sugar with amino compounds.