The truth behind prepackaged juice.

By Elloise-Beth Schmidt


Consumers of bottled or packaged juices should know the distinction between beverages, drinks and natural juices. Items like blends and drinks may not contain much actual fruit juice. They are generally nothing more than water with sugar added. Juice and cider products must contain 100% actual orange juice.

Commercial products are often pasteurized. Pasteurization is a process designed to kill harmful pathogens and bacteria. Pasteurization is a very effective sterilization process and allows us to extend the shelf life of many things. Regular pasteurization and flash pasteurization both use high temperature to remove the harmful.

Unfortunately the process also destroys vitamins and nutrients in the juice. According to General Bacteriology 12th edition, vitamin C is reduced by half during the process. He claims that infants fed solely on pasteurized milk will develop a deficiency. Lori Lopinski makes the claim that fifty percent of the vitamin C is milk is destroyed in her article Milk: It Does a Body Good. She also states that a portion of vitamins A, D and E are lost. The vitamin C loss is more significant since it is water soluble while the others are fat soluble.

The subject of vitamin loss during pasteurization is hotly debated. Pasteurization proponents argue very little loss occurs and that the benefits outweigh this small amount of loss. However, it is easy to check in the company behind your brand of juice is adding vitamin C. The ingredients will include ascorbic acid. This is vitamin C. Synthetic nutrients are added to replenish what was eliminated. The company does this so they can make claims that there is a daily supply of vitamin C in an eight ounce serving.

It is possible to purchase juice that has not been pasteurized. The west coast company Odwalla used to sell unpasteurized juice prior to 1996. In that year, Odwalla caused some E coli related deaths with their juice. All of their products have been pasteurized since this incident. Odwalla was acquired by The Coca-Cola Company in 2001. Companies are required to note on the package if the contents have been pasteurized. You can determine which products the FDA considers safe by looking for this label.

Vitamin C is damaged by oxygen in the air. The vitamin is an antioxidant. This means it is highly reactive and oxidizes easily. Oxidation is a term used when substances react with oxygen to form stable compounds. Antioxidants work by reacting with oxygen before it can oxidize other compounds. Free radicals such as oxygen can cause damage to tissues by binding to them. Exposing free radicals to antioxidants cause a reaction neutralizing both molecules and rendering them inert. Vitamin C will breakdown when exposed to oxygen.




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