It has been found that carbohydrates naturally present in ppm quantities in paraformaldehyde are the cause of the autocatalysis in the formose reaction of paraformaldehyde solutions. Paraformaldehyde sublimed into Ca(OH)2 suspension was not transformed to sugars by formose reaction, only to methanol and formate by Cannizzaro reaction. A minute trace of glycolaldehyde — 3 ppm — was sufficient to initiate conventional autocatalysis. A formose reaction scheme in which formaldehyde reacts only with sugars by aldol condensation but not with itself is proposed.