Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Is your OJ filled with ethyl butyrate?


Probably, according to Toronto based author Alissa Hamilton.

She's recently finished writing an expose on the OJ industry entitled,

"Squeezed: What You Don't Know About Orange Juice"
and this past weekend the Toronto Star interviewed her about her findings.

Among them:
"Juice companies therefore hire flavour and fragrance companies, the same ones that make popular perfumes and colognes, to fabricate flavour packs to add back to their product to make it taste like orange juice."

"Most of the juice sold in North America contains flavour packs that have especially high concentrations of ethyl butyrate"

"Any product that has a 60-plus day shelf life and is available year-round has to be heavily processed. If you want a product that is fresh-squeezed or close to it, the "best before" date is a good gauge. Fresh-squeezed juice doesn't last for more than a couple of days"
She also wades into the marketing reporting that,
"the statement that appeared at the top of Tropicana's new and now discontinued carton: "squeezed from fresh oranges." (is) meaningless – one would hope the oranges were fresh when squeezed – the statement could easily be misread as "fresh squeezed" by all but the most discerning shoppers."
I'm excited to read her book - it's available for preorder from Amazon.ca for $24.89 (37% off) right now for shipping on or around the end of the month!

Oh - and Alissa, like me, recommends you eat your oranges, not drink them.

[Via Marion Nestle's Food Politics]