Canada and the World
Current Events with a Canadian Perspective
Last update
19 November 2010
Breakfast Orange Juice
Rarely Fresh and Natural
Orange juice is marketed as a simple,
healthy food; in fact, it’s heavily
processed and contains several added chemicals
In the early years of the last century there was an overproduction of citrus fruit
in California. According to thebestofrawfood.com citrus farmers were confronted with
financial troubles: “The OJ growers didn’t know what to do with the fruit and didn’t
see another option but to destroy 30 percent of its trees. At that time, people didn’t
have a fridge yet, so if they used the crop for juicing, the juice would only last
for a day before it would start to rot.”
Pasteurization Saves the Orange Juice Industry
With pasteurization and the growth of a national rail network, U.S. citrus producers were able to ship fresh orange juice to big cities before it started to go bad.
In 1948, frozen orange concentrate was introduced into the market and the juice industry took off. Nielsen, the market research firm, says that more than 2.3 billion litres of OJ are sold each year in the U.S. alone.
Processing Orange Juice is Complex
In her 2009 book, “Squeezed: What You Don’t Know About Orange Juice,” Alissa Hamilton says the production of orange juice has become highly mechanized and involves the input of chemists and engineers.
Interviewed by Boston Globe writer Devra First, Ms. Hamilton said, “In the process
of pasteurizing, juice is heated and stripped of oxygen, a process called deaeration,
so it doesn’t oxidize. Then it’s put in huge storage tanks where it can be kept for
upwards of a year. It gets stripped of flavour-
The juice makers then call on the expertise of flavour and fragrance companies, the same ones that create perfume, to bring back the orange taste.
So-
In an interview with The New Yorker (May 2009) she noted: “Ethyl butyrate is one of the chemicals found in high concentrations in the flavour packs added to orange juice sold in North American markets, because flavour engineers have discovered that it imparts a fragrance that Americans like, and associate with a freshly squeezed orange.”
Ms. Hamilton adds that “To call it (orange juice) natural at this point is a real stretch.”
Florida’s Orange Groves Disappearing
The U.S. Department of Agriculture pegged the 2006/07 Florida orange crop at 135 million boxes, the smallest crop in 17 years.
In her book, Ms. Hamilton says the decline in fruit production in the Sunshine State is, in part, due to the loss of groves due to condominium construction but also to imports.
She told The Boston Globe: “Most concentrate is now from Brazil. Shipping it is relatively easy…The orange growing is moving to Brazil, which grows the most oranges for juice by far. Land is cheaper, and environmental regulations are almost nonexistent.”
Image credit
USFDA
“Squeezed: What You Don’t Know About Orange Juice,” Alissa Hamilton, Yale University Press, 2009.
“Q & A with Alissa Hamilton,” Devra First, Boston Globe February 22, 2009.
“Ask an Academic: Orange Juice,” Andrea Walker, New Yorker, May 14, 2009.
© Canada and the World, September 2010
All rights reserved
ORANGE FACTS
Orange juice is the official beverage of Florida.
About 90 percent of the Florida orange crop is used to make orange juice.
The top 3 orange juice producers in the world are Brazil, Florida, and Mexico. (1999).
The bitter-
In Europe, Spain is the largest producer of oranges.
100 calories in orange juice (1 cup).
Fresh raw orange juice vitamin c content is about 150 mg (1 cup) or 250% RDA.
“About 20 per cent of the total crop of oranges is sold as whole fruit; the
remainder is used in preparing orange juice, extracts, and preserves.”
Sources
The Best of Raw Food