Juice from concentrate?

Question

Some juices are from concentrate and some are not, what does it mean? and whats best for you?

Answer 1

Not from concentrate is best for you.
Concentrates are made by taking a fruit juice, heating it to a very high temperature and evaporating off the water. This leaves a thick syrup that's a small proportion of the original volume (as low as 12% with oranges).
There are also some other nasty concentrated facts:

1. Quality

The process that concentrates juice is really harsh. And because it's so harsh, there's no point using the best fruit when you're doing it. So concentrate manufacturers simply use their lowest quality fruits and juices when they're making them. That sucks.

2. Taste

It's pretty obvious that concentrating a juice will make it taste worse. Typically it'll taste 'cooked', and when we've tested concentrated vs fresh juice, everyone is able to tell the difference.

3. Nutrition

Excess heat = less nutritional goodness. The heat kills the good stuff.

4. It's less natural

It just ain't right. Why boil perfectly good juice just to save a few pence? Wrong every time.

Not from concentrate is fresh pure fruit juice.
Hope that helps.

Answer 2

The above answers aren't wholly accurate, as typically when preparing concentrate the juice is heated under vacuum, dramatically reducing the boiling point and thereby not giving a burnt or chemical taste. One good reason for doing this is that the fruit can be pressed fresh at source, and so has high levels of nutrients, instead of having to be shipped halfway around the world. A lot of supermarket apples for instance have been shown to be about 12 months old when they hit the shelves, it's hard to convceive of them having a great deal of nutritional integrity after that time.

However, that said I would agree that the best juice is freshly pressed / squeezed from fresh fruit.

Answer 3

Concentrate means that after juicing, some of the water was removed before bulk shipping. I'm not sure of the Process, it could be a heat process. Local water is added before shipping to retail. It saves money and I suppose fossil fuels.

I suspect non-concentrate is better as the juice all come from the fruit, not a water treatment plant.

Answer 4

Take a bunch of freshly squeezed juice - boil half the volume away to reduce its volume - this makes it easier and cheaper to ship.
When it gets to the bottling/canning plant - rehydrate with the appropriate amount of water, sweeten, colour and call it juice from concentrate.
Boiling....gonna remove plenty of the good stuff!

Answer 5

fresh, organic, not from concentrate, juices are best.

Answer 6

lemon juice is derived from the flesh of the lemon, and lemon oil is derived from the rind or peel.