Last year, I linked to an interview with Alissa Hamilton, author of Squeezed: What You Don’t Know About Orange Juice. Hamilton’s book has now been released in paperback, and Smithsonian blogs some more of the not-so-sweet secrets of big brand juice that Hamilton uncovers in her book. From Smithsonian:
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.
“Squeezed: The Secrets of the Orange Juice Industry” (Smithsonian)