Nothing Found in Nature

The orange juice you drank this morning, if not fresh-squeezed by yourself, just might not be what you expect it to be. According to Alissa Hamilton, author of Squeezed: What You Don't Know About Orange Juice,

“from concentrate” and most “not from concentrate” orange juice undergo processes that strip the flavor from the juice. The largest producers of “not from concentrate” or pasteurized orange juice keep their juice in million-gallon aseptic storage tanks to ensure a year round supply. Aseptic storage involves stripping the juice of oxygen, a process known as “deaeration,” so the juice doesn’t oxidize in the “tank farms” in which the juice sits, sometimes for as long as a year.

To get that "fresh-squeezed" taste, the orange juice companies re-introduce flavor in the liquid with flavor packs "fabricated from the chemicals that make up orange essence and oil." So in that glass of orange juice, you're drinking chemicals that have been concocted to taste like orange juice; Ethyl butyrate is one of the prominent chemicals in that concoction.

But those Star Trek episodes have prepared us for this future, haven't they? "Computer: Orange Juice!"

Oh, those of us in the United States, our orange juice is more likely to originate in Brazil, not Florida.

Further information:"Ask an Academic: Orange Juice," interview with Alissa Hamilton, The New Yorker, May 14, 2009