Supermarket Fruit Juice

[jadyn]

I drink quite a bit of fruit juice out of those square Tetrapacks found in supermarket aisles. I know the stuff is long life and not fresh but I prefer it to the freshly squeeezed stuff. Yesterday I bought a litre of Asda "basic " apple juice and for the first time ever, noticed that it said it was pasteurised on the side. I've never seen this before on cartons of long life juice. Are all supermarket Tetra pack juices pasteurised. There's no such declaration on my Aldi Tetra packs.

[Old_Geezer]

Unsure what the question is.

[Buenchico]

If the shelf-life of fruit juice is longer than a few days then it will have been pasteurised:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/3322133/Savvy-shopper-Fruit-juice.html

[rowanwitch]

I think pretty much all fruit juices and juice are treated this way,

[douglas9401]

It's 'have you ever run a juice carton past your eyes', OG

[theprof]

There is no legal necessity in the UK for packers or supermarkets to reveal that juice has been pasteurised. I do understand that the idea that a juice has been pasteurised may take away something about the naturalness of the product but there are a few things you need to consider.

Fruit juice just like a lot of other food products we consume, can carry pathogens that can make us seriously ill. There are dangers from such things as the fruit pickers and sorters not washing their hands, the presence of animal faeces near picking and sorting areas and the microbes found in the picking fields/orchards. All these situations can lead to a film of microbes on the fruit. It would take very few of such fruit to contaminate a whole batch of fruit juice. Therefore, pasteurisation is a good method of reducing the risk to us all. In the UK, there are reasonably stringent regulations when it comes to handling and processing fruit and vegetables intended for human consumption. However, it’s as well to remember that many countries are often not so concerned about microbial contamination of the products they export.

The aseptic packaging you mention undoubtedly contained long-life juice. This is processed in the country of origin by boiling off usually around 50% (sometimes considerably more) of the water contained in the juice after pressing the fruit, freezing the concentrated juice rapidly and shipping to the UK in bulk containers. In the packaging factory, the juice is defrosted and then pasteurised. The concentrated juice is then reconstituted by adding water until the SG of the juice is restored somewhere near to that of the unconcentrated juice. Sometimes, a second pasteurisation takes place at this point, but it’s not considered a necessity. After that, the juice is packaged in the Tetra packs and sent off to the supermarkets.

You can assume that all long life juice in this type of packaging in the UK has been pasteurised. Regulations permit the pasteurisation of freshly squeezed juice in some circumstances but it's not commonplace.

[theprof]

Good point OG. Seems the OP forgot to put a question mark after the penultimate sentence.

[Old_Geezer]

That must be why I missed it.

[KARL]

In my household juice is freshly squeezed during roughly half the year (season of own crops). Experience shows that although kept refrigerated from the start any fruit juice will start to be recognisably beginning to ferment any time from fourth day onward.

[gingejbee]

How on Earth would "long-life" (usually from concentrate) juice last for several months and longer, if it HADN'T been pasteurised?

[mildredjricheson]

The juice that is being packed in a can or box is not healthy and safe to drink. I personally prefer home made juices, so I would suggest you to drink juice that are made at home.

[woofgang]

what nonsense! can I ask what you base that view on?

[leonmetheridge]

I also prefer tetra pack juices. But is this your question?

[robertpbermudez]

I am not getting to your question.