April 27, 2010
Squeezed: The Secrets of the Orange Juice Industry
There are some food truths we hold to be self-evident, and one of them is that orange juice is inherently good. It’s packed with vitamin C; it’s what your mom tells you to drink when you feel a cold coming on; it looks like sunshine in a glass. Plus, it’s delicious.
Courtesy Flickr user TerriSeesThings
Those things are true, but Alissa Hamilton‘s book “Squeezed: What You Don’t Know About Orange Juice“—released today in paperback—reveals some other truths.
Things weren’t always this way. The ubiquitous presence of pasteurized orange juice in chilled cartons, all tasting basically the same, dates back only to the 1960s. That’s when the FDA began regulating and standardizing orange juice, and decided what consumers did and didn’t need to know about it.
As a result, despite what advertisers claim, most orange juice is neither fresh nor natural (not in the way most of us would define those terms). Think about it; how could it be truly fresh year-round, when oranges are a seasonal product? Sure, it may be “not from concentrate,” but raw juice is often heated, stripped of its volatile compounds and flavor-rich oils, and stored for as long as a year before it reaches the consumer. Something called “the flavor pack” is used to return most of the “natural” aroma and taste to the product, Hamilton explains:
The flavor is sourced from all parts of oranges everywhere…Typically, the orange oils and essences that juice concentrators collect during evaporation are sold to flavor manufacturers, who then reconfigure these by-products…into ‘flavor packs’ for reintroduction into orange juice.
Often, those by-products come from other countries and may contain unknown pesticide residues, but the producers don’t have to disclose that.
And as one citrus flavor researcher told Hamilton, replicating nature’s complexity is extremely difficult: “Right now the formula for fresh [orange] flavors is just about as elusive as the formula for Coke.”
In other words, that’s why it tastes so much better when you actually take a bunch of fresh oranges and squeeze them yourself.
Hamilton is careful to explain that she’s not against orange juice, she’s against deceptive marketing and believes consumers have a right to know what they’re buying:
The history of processed orange juice and its marketing highlights the fact that as a society we tend not to care too much about deceptive advertising unless the product being pushed is measurably harmful…As the gap in both geographic and mental miles between consumer and store bought food has widened, the role of product promotion as a source of product information has grown.
The bigger problem isn’t juice, but rather “food ignorance.” Deceptive, misleading or overly simplistic messages from both government and industry in recent decades have contributed to “the average consumer’s obliviousness to where and how that individual’s food is produced,” Hamilton concludes, which could have serious consequences for their own health, the environment and the economy.
Do you want more information about what’s in your carton of orange juice, or is this not a big deal to you?
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I remember as a kid we always had the OJ “from concentrate” … it seemed fun to make out of the frozen can and we would fight over who got to do it. I think we eventually switched when the “from concentrate” concept got a bad rap. But given what you’ve told us here, is the concentrated frozen juice maybe actually purer than the carton stuff? Or is it pretty much six on one hand, half a dozen on the other at this point?
THANK YOU! I’m a farmer, our specialty crop is Owari Satsuma Mandarins – and other citrus. So many people have never, ever tasted REAL orange juice or real citrus flavors. As a farmer, it is rewarding to be a steward of a small piece of land and have so many satisfied and satiated customers. But, a major part of our marketing is – educating! Educating the new customer about the real taste of food, in our case citrus; eating seasonally; eating raw unprocessed food. Thank you for that article. Ralene Snow, Farmer, Snow’s Citrus Court, Newcastle, California.
Hey, that’s a great question, Rebecca! I don’t know for sure, but I suspect they are probably about equal. Interesting to consider, since consumers pay a premium for the “not-from-concentrate” stuff, believing it is fresher and purer.
Truly “fresh-squeezed” juice can still be found, though it does cost more. But don’t be tricked by turns of phrase like “squeezed from fresh oranges” since that says nothing about how long it sat around or how it was processed AFTER squeezing…
[...] year I wrote a post about the book Squeezed, well it has now come out in paperback and there are some more reviews out detailing what is in our OJ: The bigger problem isn’t juice, but rather “food ignorance.” Deceptive, misleading or overly [...]
“Oranges” by John McPhee would make fascinating companion reading for this book; it’s all about the botany, industry, and history (for me the most interesting part) of oranges.
Are there any orange juices on the market that have less of these by-products and are more pure orange?
Hm, this is fascinating! I’m definitely for more disclosure on what goes into my food. I would love to see something like specific grading (perhaps color coded stickers/section of packaging b/c I’m like that, ha!) that informs consumers what ‘hidden’ things might be products.
For example: I know somebody personally who works in big pharma who told me pork gelatin was used in medication capsules. Perhaps this is widely known, but it kinda grossed me out. Is it an inherently bad thing? I guess not. But that’s something I’d like to know about. Same thing about orange juice. (although the potential pesticide residue is shady sounding, yuck)
Transparency is big right now for a lot of good reasons, and I think now, more than ever, people want to buy more than a flavor. That said, the boxed OJ here in Germany is pretty nasty and I wish I could grab a jug of Florida’s Own or Tropicana sometimes. However, I learned as a teen in California the joys of squeezing your own OJ, so that’s usually what I do here. =)
Great article – and thank for using my photo. I’m truly honored.
Before moving to the left coast, I was a devoted fan of a product whose name I can’t recall. It doesn’t seem to be available here. It was not from concentrate, and not pasteurized. The juice came in plastic jugs, in the freezer section. It was pricy and utterly delicious.
I always hated orange juice as a child. I remember the 1st time my parents took me to one of the orange fields in Florida and I tasted fresh real orange juice squeezed that day. I could hardly believe what I knew as orange juice and this were the same thing. I still could care less for the crap they sell in the stores, but I love fresh squeezed orange juice.
I asked Alissa, the author of Squeezed, if she could answer the questions raised by a couple of you — here’s what she said:
Re the question about whether frozen concentrate is a better product, I would say it is a more honest product in that the manufacturers don’t charge a premium, as they do in the case of “not from concentrate,” for an orange juice that is not what it is made out to be (ie, fresh, simple, pure). As for flavor packs, they are also added to juice made from concentrate (when the juice is concentrated the flavor providing chemicals that are natural to the juice evaporate with the water). The point isn’t that frozen concentrate is a less processed product, but that “not from concentrate,” which costs more, is also heavily processed.
Re the question about a product with fewer by-products, the best, of course is fresh squeezed juice, which is usually sold in small containers and has a shelf-life of a couple of days once opened. If you can’t find fresh squeezed, or can’t afford it, the smaller brands/companies are less likely to store huge quantities of juice, and therefore to add flavor packs (in the case of “not from concentrate,” aka “pasteurized,” orange juice, the flavor is lost in the aseptic storage process, not in pasteurization). Also look for the “best before date.” Any product that has a shelf-life of 60+ days is bound to be heavily processed.
Oh wow! That shocks me, though after reading it, I feel like it shouldn’t. I love OJ and always try and have it when I feel sick. I’d really never thought about the depth behind advertising, or the source of it. I think the food industry has been challenged more lately with people seeking local, organic, sustainable foods more often and the publicity from that is slowly getting the average consumer to begin contemplating the source and health of things eaten and purchased. (VERY SLOWLY, mind you :) I’d just never thought about it as relates to OJ before!
All the more reason to make your own at home, indeed. Thanks for sharing! Wow!
I suggest trying Natalie’s Orchid Island Juice Company’s Gourmet Pasteurized Orange Juice. This is by far the best orange juice I have ever tried, and contans nothing other than orange juice- no additives, chemicals, or flavoring. Not only can I attest to the quality of this product, but the juice has been deemed best tasting in America by Good Housekeeping, Real Simple, and Cook’s Illustrated.
All of the orange juice consumed in my home is from fresh squeezed oranges. I have been juicing oranges for almost three years. I enjoy the freshness without the added sugar that the bottled juices have. I also enjoy the absence of the burning in my throat that I used to get after a glass of bottled orange from the grocery store. I always decline offers for orange juice from restaurants and relatives when I know the source is from mass production. I will stay with the fresh, unpasterized juices. I will let the pasterized and sweetened juices pass by me.
This is one of those times when you feel really ripped off! I’ve been on a mission to try to eat as healthy and close to natural as possible; my husband in particular loves OJ and, that’s right, I thought the NFC with lots of pulp that he likes was a good thing. Now I find out from a TV special on orange processing that it is heated to kill the enzymes! (for longer shelf life). I’ll be squeezing it from now on. Amanda B., particularly enjoyed your comment.