Remember the commercial where a straw gets plugged into a juicy, ripe orange? Well, those supposedly premium orange juice brands are neither as fresh nor as natural as the ads would have us believe, yet they cost far more than concentrates.

The Bitter Truth About Fruit Juice

Our friends at CBC Marketplace and Radio-Canada's L'épicerie revealed that the "not from concentrate" brands—including Tropicana, Simply Orange, Oasis—are just as processed as their cheaper alternatives.

In fact, such premium OJ is processed to keep it from spoiling. Then it's stored for months, even up to a year, before it finds its way to your fridge. So much for freshly squeezed!

After processing, juice has lost much of its colour and flavour. The juice is then infused with flavour packs that inject the orange taste back into the juice. Though the flavour packs (made from orange oils and orange essence) aren't artificial, the addition isn't listed on labels. 

It's something Alissa Hamilton, OJ whistle blower and author of the book, Squeezed: What You Don’t Know About Orange Juice, thinks Canadian consumers deserve to know, especially given we pay quite the premium— $500m a year —on so-called premium juice. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency agrees with Hamilton, and wants manufacturers to list "added flavour" to their list of ingredients. 

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"There's definitely a disconnect with that trend that we're seeing, that people actually prefer the taste of a processed product, and yet they still want to believe that what they're buying and drinking is fresh," said Hamilton. "...what you're getting back in these flavour packs is an engineered product."

In the U.S., several class-action lawsuits have been filed against manufacturers for "deceptive practices" when marketing their juices as fresh and natural. If natural flavour is being reinstated, then are companies truly guilty of false advertising? Can we trust what's printed on a label anymore?

I admit it, I've been conned... For a long time I've been buying the more expensive, premium brands of OJ, and now I'm more inclined to juice my own citrus (assuming a fresh orange can be found in Canada in January).  

You tell me: Will you continue to buy 'fresh' orange juice?

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