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    We can file this Orange Juice Fiasco safely under the heading of corporate conduct that manages to screw the consumer, adhere to the barest letter of the law, and be scandalously profitable all at same time!   Heuristically speaking, what the major orange juice producers are doing is considered the standard of corporate behaviour.  So when your right-wing friends tell you about how evil restrictive government policies/regulations are literally choking the life out of the (sacrosanct) market you can tell them about this orange juice story and watch them wiggle and squirm as they try to think of what combination of market theology/bombast will shut you the hell up.

“The cartons say “100% pure and natural.” But juice-drinkers who believe that premium juice is minimally processed and freshly made may find that their glass is only half full.

A joint investigation by CBC Marketplace and Radio-Canada’s L’épicerie reveals that much of the premium not-from-concentrate orange juice on the market, including juices from Tropicana, Simply Orange, Oasis and others, is highly processed and may be stored for several months before making its way to supermarket shelves.

That processing may keep the juice from spoiling, but it also strips the flavour, which has to be put back into the product to give the juice its orange flavour.

“If you’re paying premium thinking that it’s a fresh-squeezed product, then there is a problem there, because it’s not,” Alissa Hamilton, […]”

Not past your first cup of life yet, let me highlight the key point – Your premium “freshly squeezed” OJ has probably been stored in a vat for serveral months, in a flavourless, pasteurized state.  To make it palatable, they have to add orange concentrate back into the mix.   I know I’m jumping ahead here, but this is the gist of what is going on in the OJ industry.

“But many leading juice companies do not disclose, either in marketing or on the packaging, that they add natural flavour to juice.”

Whoops.   Not like consumers would need to know about that right?  It wouldn’t be like they were contradicting themselves or anything with the rest of the OJ label claiming to be “freshly squeezed”.

“Canadians spend almost $500 million a year on orange juice, including premium juice, which is often marketed as “fresh,” “pure,” “natural” and “not from concentrate.”

And that premium comes at, well, a premium.

“’Not from concentrate’ costs quite a bit more than ‘from concentrate,'” says Hamilton. “They’re trying to convince you that that’s because of the fresher product, that you should pay that much more.”

The Marketplace survey, conducted online by the polling firm EKOS in November 2014, also found that 62 per cent of Canadian orange juice drinkers said they believed that premium juice is fresher than juice made from concentrate, and 58 per cent say they believe it’s more natural.

In fact, 46 per cent were willing to pay more for these juices because they believe them to be more natural.

The survey involved English speakers who said they had bought or consumed orange juice in the last six months.

But Hamilton says that “what you’re getting back in these flavour packs is an engineered product.”

Shocked I tell you, just shocked am I about juice producers dishonestly labelling their products to make a buck.

“Flavour packs are made when fragrance companies take extracts from orange peel to reproduce the aroma and taste of freshly squeezed oranges.”

Mmmmmm…I love the taste of freshly squeezed flavour packs in the morning…

“Solange Doré, vice president of Lassonde Beverages Canada, which makes Oasis juices, told L’épicerie “these are flavours that come from the fruit, they are an integral part of the fruit. So, in essence they’ve been lost and we collect them and restore them.

“So we’re not adding synthetic flavours, it’s very important to understand that difference,” she said.

For that reason, juice companies don’t feel that the labelling is misleading and say that the packaging complies with existing regulations.

Coca-Cola, which owns popular brands Simply Orange and Minute Maid, told Marketplace in a statement, “orange oil and orange essence is extracted during juicing to capture the natural orange taste and aroma, which may be later blended back into the juice to ensure a consistent, fresh-squeezed taste.

“The amount of orange oil or orange essence that may be re-added to the juice is within the range that is commonly found in freshly squeezed orange juice,” the statement said.”

Well, there is the greasy technicality they are using to bilk you, gentle Canadian reader, out of your hard earned dollars.

The immoral of the story, as usual, with corporations is that greed and the bottom line take precedence over all other concerns.  Take heed conservative voters who think that deregulation and ‘cutting red tape’ are mega-fracking awesome ideas because this OJ debacle is only a minor jaunt into the world of corporate malfeasance.

[Source: cbc.ca]