Orange Juice - Did You Know?

[yorkieusa]

Orange Juice's 'Secret Ingredient' Worries Some Health-Minded Moms

Natalya Murakhver, a New York food writer and mother of an 18-month year old daughter, loved her premium brand orange juice -- the "100 percent pure" and "not from concentrate" kind that comes in the colorful carton and tastes consistently delicious.

That is, until she said she learned from her first-time moms group that there's a "secret ingredient" in all premium orange juices that companies are not required to put on their labeling.

Now, after writing Whole Foods, she refuses to buy her favorite, "365" juice, amid uncertainty about its contents.

"One of the moms said she had read about [how the juice is made] and they held it in tanks for up to a year and it pretty much lost all of its flavor and had to be reinvigorated with these flavor packs, which are essentially chemicals," said Murakhver, 40, and co-author of "They Eat What?: A Cultural Encyclopedia of Weird and Exotic Food from around the World."

For the last 30 years, the citrus industry has used flavor packs to process what the Food and Drug Administration identifies as "pasteurized" orange juice. That includes top brands such as Tropicana, Minute Maid, Simply Orange and Florida Natural, among others.

Murakhver said the addition of the flavor packs long after orange juice is stored actually makes those premium juices more like a concentrate, and consumers need to know that.

Experts estimate two-thirds of all Americans drink Florida orange juice for breakfast, and companies spend millions on their marketing campaigns touting its health benefits.

The "not from concentrate" brands appeared on store shelves sometime in the 1980s to differentiate them from frozen juice and other bottled concentrates. Despite its high price tag -- now up to $4 a carton -- sales of the premium brands have soared.

But those juices don't just jump from the grove to the breakfast table.

After oranges are picked, they are shipped off to be processed. They are squeezed and pasteurized and, if they are not bound for frozen concentrate, are kept in aseptic storage, which involves stripping the juice of oxygen in a process called "deaeration," and kept in million-gallon tanks for up to a year.

Before packaging and shipping, the juice is then jazzed up with an added flavor pack, gleaned from orange byproducts such as the peel and pulp, to compensate for the loss of taste and aroma during the heating process.

Different brands use different flavor packs to give their product its unique and always consistent taste. Minute Maid, for example, has a distinctive candy-sweet flavor.

Kristen Gunter, executive director of the Florida Citrus Processors Association, confirmed that juices are blended and stored and that flavor packs are added to pasteurized juice before shipping to stores.

Flavor packs are created from the volatile compounds that escape from the orange during the pasteurization step.

But, she said, "It's not made in a lab or made in a chemical process, but comes through the physical process of boiling and capturing the [orange essence]."

The pasteurization process not only makes the food safe, but stabilizes the juice, which in its fresh state separates. Adding the flavor packs ensures a consistent flavor.

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) grades the quality of the juice based on color, flavor and defects.

"To get grade A, we have to blend it," she said. "Because oranges and their growing seasons vary, both the Valencia -- 'king of the oranges' -- and its lesser cousin, the Hamlin, are combined in the process.

"A processor is faced with harvesting the crop and giving the consumer some sense of what [he or she] might be getting," she said. "You buy branded orange juice, you kind of want it to taste, generally, the same. That expectation is met by blending different varieties and, in order to blend, storage is involved."

Orange Juice: Some Moms Say It Has a 'Secret Ingredient' That Worries Them - ABC News

[Maximo]

You have completely burst my bubble about the "fresh" orange juice that I drink. Now I am going to have to fresh squeeze it myself. Although I wouldn't be surprised to learn oranges are injected with some kind of preservative.

Very interesting info.

[capt_noonie]

Of course the oranges are injected with some kind of preservative! And only the perfect ones make it to the market. Grow your own in your garden then. I think I will try. I do live in Orange County you know.

[McheleM]

You would be hard pressed to find anything store bought that doesn't have preservatives, artificial crap, and fillers. It's why 10 yr old girls have their periods and boobs, why more people have cancer and why we're all fat angry blobs.

[gemy]

Originally Posted by capt_noonie

Of course the oranges are injected with some kind of preservative! And only the perfect ones make it to the market. Grow your own in your garden then. I think I will try. I do live in Orange County you know.

Crappers really? Another bubble burst. I don't buy orange juice, I buy oranges. Sigh. No chance of me growing an orange tree, where I live.

[sugarmamma]

Originally Posted by capt_noonie

Of course the oranges are injected with some kind of preservative! And only the perfect ones make it to the market. Grow your own in your garden then. I think I will try. I do live in Orange County you know.

We are lucky to have many many orange groves AND private homes here that give/sell fruit. I tend to get ugly untreated fruit from my neighbor's trees

[Micah my love]

I have drank more OJ this year than ever... maybe i will stop now

[QuickSilver]

That would really be a bummer if the orange juice wasn't pure!

I think maybe this article is giving an overly negative spin. Pasteurization really just means it's heated for sterilization - most of us buy pasteurized milk. And it sounds like the "flavor pack" - which sounds very scary and artificial - is really just stuff from the orange anyway.

[sugarmamma]

Originally Posted by QuickSilver

That would really be a bummer if the orange juice wasn't pure!

I think maybe this article is giving an overly negative spin. Pasteurization really just means it's heated for sterilization - most of us buy pasteurized milk. And it sounds like the "flavor pack" - which sounds very scary and artificial - is really just stuff from the orange anyway.

I can smell Tropicana's "flavor pack" every day. It's orange peels and smell sickly sweet while concentrating ~ but purely natural as far as I'm aware.

[Jacksmom052709]

Who would have thunk it???? Thanks for sharing!

[celstu1]

Originally Posted by QuickSilver

That would really be a bummer if the orange juice wasn't pure!

I think maybe this article is giving an overly negative spin. Pasteurization really just means it's heated for sterilization - most of us buy pasteurized milk. And it sounds like the "flavor pack" - which sounds very scary and artificial - is really just stuff from the orange anyway.

I tend to agree with you. Still drinking my OJ. Its better than soda!

[Nancy1999]

Originally Posted by QuickSilver

That would really be a bummer if the orange juice wasn't pure!

I think maybe this article is giving an overly negative spin. Pasteurization really just means it's heated for sterilization - most of us buy pasteurized milk. And it sounds like the "flavor pack" - which sounds very scary and artificial - is really just stuff from the orange anyway.

I agree!

We grow our own oranges, and fresh squeeze, but you have to use the orange juice right away, in an hour it tastes so different, even if refrigerated. So be glad there's something that you can buy that tastes just like fresh squeezed and you can keep it in the fridge for a few days. Oranges are not an easy crop, too cold the taste is off, or too hot the taste is off. By the way they are organic oranges, we fertilize with poop from our pond!