Abstract: Beet juice is purified, then concentrated and treated in several steps for boiling and centrifugal separation to effect recovery of sucrose therefrom. The molasses remaining after the separation of sucrose from massecuite is treated with .alpha.-galactosidase to effect hydrolysis of raffinose present in the molasses. The resultant raffinose hydrolyzate is introduced into a calcium saccharate-forming step, wherein quicklime is continuously added to the hydrolyzate to form saccharate within the hydrolyzate. From the calcium saccharate-forming step, nearly the same volume of the saccharate-containing solution as that of the raffinose hydrolyzate fed therein is forwarded to a filtering and washing step. The resultant saccharate cake is sent back to the step for purification.