Fresh, homemade juice is superior to pasteurized juice on several different levels including taste, smell and nutrition. Today, over 95% of commercially available juice is pasteurized. Pasteurization is the process of heating liquids to very high temperatures, for designated time periods, in order to destroy bacteria. Pasteurization is used in order to kill any food borne pathogens that may be present in a liquid. Pasteurization, however, also destroys a juice’s flavor, taste, smell and nutrient content.

In fact, juice manufacturers add chemical compounds back to pasteurized juice, via "flavor packs", to replace the aroma and taste that is destroyed by pasteurization’ss high heat. As stated by a U.S. Department of Agriculture staffer, "developing flavor packs that more closely mimic fresh juice flavor would improve the desirability of U.S. processed orange juice and help it better compete in the global marketplace," – Alfredo Flores, Agricultural Research Service Information Staff.

Alissa Hamilton, the author of Squeezed: What You Don’t Know About Orange Juice, states: "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 flavor-providing chemicals, which are volatile. When it’s ready for packaging, companies such as Tropicana hire flavor companies such as Firmenich to engineer flavor packs to make it taste fresh. People think not-from-concentrate is a fresher product, but it also sits in storage for quite a long time."

Pasteurization’s high heat kills flavor, taste and aroma. High heat is known to be very detrimental to certain nutrients like vitamin C. Bottled, canned and frozen concentrated pasteurized juice is not as good as the real thing – fresh homemade juice. Use a juicer to make the healthiest fruit and vegetable juice possible.

Published 5/9/2010 12:00:00 AM

Tags: Homemade Juice, Pasteurization