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Orange juice labels: pulp fiction?

One brand's labeling is a circus, the Department of Citrus says.

By IVAN PENN, The Consumer's Edge
Published August 25, 2007

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At first glance, the label reads: "Made With Not From Concentrate Juice."

But read a little further, and the label on the Homemaker Premium carton also notes it is "Blended with Valencia Orange Juice. From Concentrate."

Confused?

So was the Florida Department of Citrus, which decided to crack down on what it viewed as deceptive labeling practices, in particular a company with a juice that carries its "100% PURE FLORIDA" logo.

The department has ordered the juice's maker, TWS Marketing, to remove the logo from HomeMaker Premium cartons. Any cartons with the logo that are still on store shelves must be removed by Oct. 1 or the department will seize them.

"That label is a circus," said Kenneth Keck, executive director of the Florida Department of Citrus. "Between fraud and deception, it's all there, we believe."

Tom Saltmarsh, president of TWS Marketing, defends the label. He says he thought the state and the U.S. Department of Agriculture were okay with his labeling because he said he ran it by them before using it.

"We went to everyone about our product," Saltmarsh said.

Saltmarsh believes the criticism of his business is a ploy by the larger juice providers like Tropicana to quash his operation.

HomeMaker Premium provides something of a dying breed of orange juice these days. TWS Marketing uses only Florida oranges for HomeMaker Premium.

Others increasingly tap Central and South America for their orange juice, including Tropicana, which gets juice from Brazil, and Minute Maid, which uses Brazilian and Costa Rican orange juice.

All told, the labels on Tropicana (a division of purified tap water producer PepsiCo) and Minute Maid (a division of Coca Cola) also have much to be desired. The note about juice coming from Brazil and Costa Rica are in tiny print on the back of the juice cartons (or is it cartoons?).

That straw stuck in the pretty little fresh orange on the front of a Tropicana carton should be longer, so it can reach South America.

Anyway, Tropicana dismisses the notion that it somehow prompted the state probe into TWS Marketing. "Tropicana is focused on meeting consumers needs much more than the competition," company spokesman Peter Brace said.

Brace noted that Tropicana remains the largest purchaser of Florida fruit.

In the end, the question remains, is the criticism of HomeMaker's label justified?

Priscilla Hickey thinks so. She and her husband spend eight months out of the year in Port Richey and have for years bought HomeMaker Premium orange juice.

Recently, she noticed the confusing labeling. Hickey wrote to me about the wording, asking, "Can you enlighten us as to what this means?"

The answer simply is that TWS Marketing blends their juices.

One has to wonder why TWS Marketing couldn't find a better way to market its product, such as touting its use of all Florida product with the old Union slogan, "Made in the U.S.A."

Facing the October deadline, Saltmarsh said the company is working on new packaging it soon will unveil.

So here's the edge:

- Ignorance might be bliss, but if you read the label, you might live longer. The real advantage corporate America has over consumers is that we don't read what's in the stuff we buy, eat and drink.

- Beware of terms such as "not from concentrate" when it is not supported with 100 percent pure and 100 percent juice. A drink can have 10 percent juice that is "not from concentrate" and 90 percent sugar water and still have "not from concentrate" on the label.

- Don't expect "fresh squeezed." Some restaurants and hotels still sell fresh squeezed orange juice, but most juice makers stopped doing it because of bacteria problems that they cure with pasteurization.

Not from concentrate? What does that mean?
HomeMaker contains juice that is not from concentrate but also might have juice from concentrate or other juices that are indicated on the ingredients.

So, it's from concentrate, too
When a juice is from concentrate, water is extracted from the juice and only the concentrates remain. It must be reconstituted with water. Some think HomeMaker Premium's label was unclear whether it was concentrate or not from concentrate. In fact, it contains both.

Labels, defined:
"Premium": A generic term that indicates a higher quality product within its category.
"100% Pure": Guarantees the product is entirely made of the juice indicated.
"Florida squeezed": Orange juice made from Florida oranges.
"Contains orange juice from the U.S. and Brazil": While HomeMaker uses only Florida oranges, other brands - including Tropicana - get juices from elsewhere. The fine print on Tropicana cartons show that the contents may contain Brazilian juices.

[Last modified August 25, 2007, 02:46:06]