When equal amounts of extrorotatory and levorotatory isomers are present, the resulting mixture becomes optically inactive because the optical activities of each isomer cancel each other.
Such a mixture is called a racemic or dl-mixture or (±)-conglomerate and this process of converting an optically active compound into the racemic modification is known of racemization.
#Unit 1. Molecules and their Interaction Relevant to Biology#OPTICAL Properties of Monosaccharides#Part B Pointers