Pure sucrose solutions do not form stable foams. Foaming tendencies in technical sucrose solutions result from the presence of foam stabilising impurities which may be present in only trace amounts. The formation of stable or metastable foams, which increases the risk of tank overflows, pan carryover and 'firing' in low grade crystallisers, is a routine occurrence in the processing of cane syrups and molasses. Cane juice contains naturally occurring impurities having surface active properties which include foam stabilisation. This paper reports on experiments designed to obtain fundamental information on the surface active properties of typical cane molasses and elucidates certain features of molasses and massecuite behaviour in boiling conditions under vacuum.