In the industrial processing of sugar-containing plant juices, as carried out on a large scale in the recovery of sugar from sugar beet and from sugar cane, as well as in the production of baker’s yeast using molasses, it is necessary to add suitable assistants to reduce foam formation to an acceptable level or prevent it completely.
The formation of stable foams is due to certain surfactant substances, such as humic acids, protein substances, degradation products of protein and starch, pectins and saponins, as occur very widely in nature. Hence, the amount of foam formers varies depending on the year of harvesting and region of cultivation.
In sugar factory, an excessive  build-up of foam can give rise to particular difficulties in the diffusors, in the clarification apparatuses, in the carbonisation tanks and in the evaporators.

The substance used for controlling foam must be removed substantially in the conventional working up of end product, for example during refinement of the sugar or during washing of the yeast, so that they can no longer be detected in final product. Moreover, all assistants used in the preparation of foodstuffs should be odourless and tasteless and course completely physiologically acceptable.