I have to stop reading investigative articles and books about foods I eat. I may never go to the grocery store again. This time it's a damning piece called Squeezed: What You Don’t Know About Orange Juice. But I suspect you could write a book like this about just about any prepackaged food.
Now I find out that orange juice, despite the label reading:
Ingredients: 100% Orange Juice.
is actually not 100% orange juice. You see, orange juice deteriorates rapidly, so right after it is squeezed the juice is put into a system that removes most of the oxygen from it. This also removes most of the flavor unfortunately, but it allows the juice to be stored for a very long time, a year even.
So in order to get the flavor back into the juice without adding anything the FDA would consider another ingredient for the label, they use flavorings made from highly modified chemical components of actual oranges. The industry name for these compounds is "flavor packs".
"When the juice is stripped of oxygen it is also stripped of flavor providing chemicals. Juice companies therefore hire flavor and fragrance companies, the same ones that formulate perfumes for Dior and Calvin Klein, to engineer flavor packs to add back to the juice to make it taste fresh. Flavor packs aren’t listed as an ingredient on the label because technically they are derived from orange essence and oil. Yet those in the industry will tell you that the flavor packs, whether made for reconstituted or pasteurized orange juice, resemble nothing found in nature.
The formulas vary to give a brand's trademark taste. If you're discerning you may have noticed Minute Maid has a candy like orange flavor. That's largely due to the flavor pack Coca-Cola has chosen for it. Some companies have even been known to request a flavor pack that mimics the taste of a popular competitor, creating a 'hall of mirrors' of flavor packs".
Candy-like? It never ceases to astound me how much the food we eat is modified, and often in very clever ways so that it appears to be natural.
We started juicing lately (hence my interest in reading about it) and I feel so much better that I have 8 Valencia oranges at home right now that I'll juice and not remove the oxygen from or add any flavor packs to.
Not to sound too much like a hippy or anything, but the more I learn about the industrialization of our food system the more I tend to think all-natural foods, particularly home or locally-grown versions, are the only way to go.
The hard part is paying for them. Mass production does do one really nifty thing: it reduces prices. You can go broke eating natural foods. Then you might die of starvation instead of additive poisoning.
Oh hell. Let's all go get corn dogs.
Now I find out that orange juice, despite the label reading:
Ingredients: 100% Orange Juice.
is actually not 100% orange juice. You see, orange juice deteriorates rapidly, so right after it is squeezed the juice is put into a system that removes most of the oxygen from it. This also removes most of the flavor unfortunately, but it allows the juice to be stored for a very long time, a year even.
So in order to get the flavor back into the juice without adding anything the FDA would consider another ingredient for the label, they use flavorings made from highly modified chemical components of actual oranges. The industry name for these compounds is "flavor packs".
"When the juice is stripped of oxygen it is also stripped of flavor providing chemicals. Juice companies therefore hire flavor and fragrance companies, the same ones that formulate perfumes for Dior and Calvin Klein, to engineer flavor packs to add back to the juice to make it taste fresh. Flavor packs aren’t listed as an ingredient on the label because technically they are derived from orange essence and oil. Yet those in the industry will tell you that the flavor packs, whether made for reconstituted or pasteurized orange juice, resemble nothing found in nature.
The formulas vary to give a brand's trademark taste. If you're discerning you may have noticed Minute Maid has a candy like orange flavor. That's largely due to the flavor pack Coca-Cola has chosen for it. Some companies have even been known to request a flavor pack that mimics the taste of a popular competitor, creating a 'hall of mirrors' of flavor packs".
Candy-like? It never ceases to astound me how much the food we eat is modified, and often in very clever ways so that it appears to be natural.
We started juicing lately (hence my interest in reading about it) and I feel so much better that I have 8 Valencia oranges at home right now that I'll juice and not remove the oxygen from or add any flavor packs to.
Not to sound too much like a hippy or anything, but the more I learn about the industrialization of our food system the more I tend to think all-natural foods, particularly home or locally-grown versions, are the only way to go.
The hard part is paying for them. Mass production does do one really nifty thing: it reduces prices. You can go broke eating natural foods. Then you might die of starvation instead of additive poisoning.
Oh hell. Let's all go get corn dogs.
1 comment:
I feel your pain. Sometimes I feel like the only person trying to eat real food. And label deception? Don't get me started! BTW, I won't mistake you for a hippie when you don't even spell it right...you're too young to be a hippie!
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