#bone char

There isn’t bone char in sugar exactly, it’s just they use bone char to decolourise sugar as part of the production process. That isn’t much better, but bone char as a processing aid is not permitted in USDA 100% certified organic cane sugar, and beet sugar doesn’t use it either so you can look out for that. If in doubt, contact the manufacturer.

There’s not really a personal stance on goods as stand-alone products, so I’m going to answer as though this were asking whether or not these items are vegan (which in a way is a personal stance, for obviously vegan items will have the seal of approval). 

Sugar obviously runs into its problems when we are talking about commercially refined sugar, which is sometimes processed using bone char. Not all refined sugars do use a bone-char filter in the refining process, but if you’re wondering whether or not your personal brand is vegan or not, here is a list of the vegan brands. As for sugars added into other products, this will rely on the company that the brand sources the sugar from. There’s nothing inherently wrong with sugar as a product, just the refining process for some of the large commercial brands, particularly in the United States. 

As for vinegar and apple juice, once again, it’s the refining process that calls the veganism of the product into question. The process of isinglass, or the use of a fish’s swim bladder to add clarity and refine liquids, particularly beverages, is not vegan. Therefore, many of the commercially available goods, including beer, wine, juices, and yes, even some vinegars, are not vegan. Once again, these are brand-dependent practices. There are online resources, including exhaustive lists, that state which brands and products use isinglass to refine their products. There is nothing wrong with these products on their own, as long as they are vegan, and have not been filtered using isinglass. 

And just because this ask didn’t particularly specify if this was about whether or not the products are vegan, I think sugar and apple juice are absolutely delicious (particularly when mixed with other things), and vinegar definitely helps with cleaning and cooking. My stance is, therefore, that all of these are firm positives! (as long as they’re vegan, of course)

If you’re anywhere in the EU (including the UK) then this is a non-issue as it doesn’t happen here. If you’re in the US or Canada then it’s a problem because companies don’t have to declare whether their sugar is refined with bone char as it’s considered a production process as opposed to an ingredient. In things like jam you will never really know what kind of sugar has been used unless they tell you on their website. You can google the brand and can often find out that way, but it’s not something you’ll ever be 100% sure of or can avoid all the time.