Abstract: Disclosed is a process for manufacturing an sugar ester product of a sugar and a fatty acid. First, a fatty acid and methyl or ethyl alcohol is reacted in the presence of sulfuric acid catalyst to produce a fatty acid ester and water. The sulfuric acid catalyst is neutralized with a metal carbonate to make a metal sulfate, with the fatty acid ester being separated from the metal sulfate, the alcohol and the water. The recovered fatty acid ester is reacted in the presence of a metal carbonate catalyst with sugar dissolved in dimethyl sulfoxide to produce the sugar ester product and alcohol. The dimethyl sulfoxide is separated from the reaction mixture by vacuum distillation, and then water is added to emulsify the sugar ester product and unreacted fatty acid ester. The unreacted sugar and the metal carbonate is dissolved in the water.