This reflects variable genetic and environmental factors of the beets processed.
As expected, on progression from one sampling point to the next, less year to year variability was evident, due to the evaporation process creating homogeneous high Brix syrups.The largest changes oecured during the periods between the 1 st and 2nd, and 2nd and 3rd evaporators, where temperature is the highest. By the 3rd sampling point, year to year variation became insignificant for all variables except pH. Excellent correlations existed between pols measured at 589 and 880nrn, with 96/97 data slightly higher (see Table 1).