A crystal clear glass of your favorite Florida orange juice with a dash of Vitamin C can truly make you feel like drinking the healthiest treat – from 100% orange juices to freshly squeezed label printed on the pack. As you drink up, you can still even smell that oh-so-fresh citrus scent that perks up your senses, making you feel energized for a day of work. What breakfast is complete without your pure orange juice? See it here how vital orange juices are.
The question now is: Are You Truly Drinking Natural and Pure Orange Juice?
One of the trade secrets of many orange juice manufacturers in keeping their orange juice smelling fresh is also known as a food additive called Ethyl Butyrate. Alissa Hamilton’s book entitled Squeezed: What You Don’t Know About Orange Juice talks about the truth behind what you think is healthy and what the orange juice industry really does to make you think as such. The orange juice has become a quintessential symbol of drinking something pure in a glass and it has become an essential part of a household’s kitchen, where nothing beats the freshness out of a glass of your favorite orange juice label.
How is Orange Juice Processed?
Orange juice manufacturers store their heated or pasteurized orange juice in aseptic storage tanks to make sure supply goes year-round. When the orange juice is stored, oxygen is stripped off so it will not oxidize the juice in the tanks. When this happens, the flavors in the natural fruit juices also fades away. If a person will try drinking a glass of juice from one of these tanks, it will just taste like sugar water.
To make the juice smell fresh, flavorists are hired to add Ethyl Butyrate, which will give an orange fruit scent to these juices. This is also the same substance used in a bottle of your citrus perfume or cologne. This will fool you into thinking that you’re truly drinking a naturally-squeezed orange fruit. For an added effect, pulps are even added to the highly-concentrated orange juice that is a cocktail of many synthetic food substances.
Normally, these flavor packs that contain high concentrations of Ethyl Butyrate are nothing close to the natural flavor chemicals found in fresh oranges. Ethyl Butyrate has been known as a causative agent that is linked with cases of sinusitis and allergies. If you are having an allergic reaction after drinking an orange juice, you will need to have a healthier option in making sure you get your freshly-squeezed oranges each day. Instead of going for processed and packed orange juices found in your local market, you can try buying oranges and make a juice from your electronic juicer. It may be a tedious job, but at least, you have peace of mind. Oranges, unfortunately, are exposed to high amounts of pesticides ( and this is another story ) and you need to wash your fruits very well before consuming it.
What Orange Juice is Closer to the Real Thing?
This is a tricky question, especially when you don’t see what are inside your orange juice. The Tropicana label used to have this statement ” squeezed from fresh oranges ” discontinued, perhaps due to a misleading message it gave to many discerning consumers. The FDA has regulated the processing of the orange juice since the ‘60s and nothing much has changed. In the end, any orange juice with more than 60 days of shelf-life and availability that reaches a year is heavily processed. Truth is, freshly squeezed orange juice, like the fruit itself, won’t even last for a week. You will always have a choice between what’s pure and what’s not. By knowing this information, you are giving yourself the freedom to make healthier choices.
