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Liberal_in_LA

(44,397 posts)
Wed Feb 13, 2013, 02:00 PM Feb 2013

"Simply Orange ... is actually a creepy, Frankenstein-ian creation of Coca-Cola"

Last edited Wed Feb 13, 2013, 03:56 PM - Edit history (1)

I imagine if I lived in a different part of the country, had a few unruly kids and cared only for the price/convenience matrix most of the country lives by, I would, like millions of Americans, buy giant tubs of “All Natural” and “Grove Made” and “Sunshine-Licked” and whatever else the misleading label claimed, thinking it fine, good enough, hey the kids like it and who has the time to worry about juice?

I most certainly would not know that something like Simply Orange, which sounds so chaste and humble, is actually a creepy, Frankenstein-ian creation of the Coca-Cola corporation, and the manufacture of Simply Orange is one of the most ginormous, technologically advanced, hyperindustrial processes you can imagine, and that this anything-but-simple process is sort of terrifying and miraculous and sad, all at once. Thanks, BusinessWeek, for enlightening/depressing me all over again. You rock.



http://blog.sfgate.com/morford/2013/02/12/you-and-your-terrifying-orange-juice/

22 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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"Simply Orange ... is actually a creepy, Frankenstein-ian creation of Coca-Cola" (Original Post) Liberal_in_LA Feb 2013 OP
OMG! Blending orange juices sure is creepy, eh? muriel_volestrangler Feb 2013 #1
Have you seen or read about the processing that "not-from-concentrate" orange juice goes through? backscatter712 Feb 2013 #10
I just want to know what's in the "flavor pack" Taverner Feb 2013 #21
There's no "there" there... TroglodyteScholar Feb 2013 #2
Mmmm, consistently re-flavored deoxygenated sugar-water! n/t backscatter712 Feb 2013 #14
Was anyone actually under the impression... TroglodyteScholar Feb 2013 #17
Coca-Cola does call the stuff "Orange Juice". n/t backscatter712 Feb 2013 #18
And so do all the other "orange juice" companies. TroglodyteScholar Feb 2013 #19
Absolute Horseshit... cry wolf when you see a rabbit... Rosco T. Feb 2013 #3
I would bet that the writer was experiencing writer's block when ChisolmTrailDem Feb 2013 #6
The article is a diatribe that never got around to describing the nature ChisolmTrailDem Feb 2013 #4
Fair point, because the manufacture of "fresh-squeezed" orange juice is Frankensteinian. backscatter712 Feb 2013 #9
OMG they strip the OXYGEN!! Robb Feb 2013 #20
Good grief! HappyMe Feb 2013 #5
There is nothing whatever unusual about this juice tkmorris Feb 2013 #7
Gotta agree. I have tried it and it is quite good, RebelOne Feb 2013 #13
LOL, same here tkmorris Feb 2013 #16
I agree with Mark completely. I hate this continuing homogenizing of everything in this sinkingfeeling Feb 2013 #8
Sunshine Licked! Puzzledtraveller Feb 2013 #11
Mmm, de-oxygenated, de-flavored, then re-flavored sugar water!!! backscatter712 Feb 2013 #12
Sunny Delight is orange. LiberalAndProud Feb 2013 #15
That entire line is terrible. GaYellowDawg Feb 2013 #22

muriel_volestrangler

(101,149 posts)
1. OMG! Blending orange juices sure is creepy, eh?
Wed Feb 13, 2013, 02:24 PM
Feb 2013

Sometimes, Morford can be a right pillock. This is one of those times. So orange juice brands blend different batches of oranges to keep to the characteristics their market research tells them will sell best? Stop the presses. I'm sure that, in future years, 'Frankenstein-ian' will drop out of use as a word, to be replaced by the far more terrifying 'Simple Orangian' ...

backscatter712

(26,355 posts)
10. Have you seen or read about the processing that "not-from-concentrate" orange juice goes through?
Wed Feb 13, 2013, 04:11 PM
Feb 2013

Granted, the article in the OP does not adequately describe that process.

Here's an article with a better description.

http://consumerist.com/2011/07/29/oj-flavor-packs/

There’s a dirty secret in your glass of orange juice. Even though it says “not from concentrate,” it probably sat in a large vat for up to year with all the oxygen removed from it. This allows it to be preserved and dispensed all year-round. Taking out all the O2 also gets rid of all the flavor. So the juice makers have to add the flavors back in using preformulated recipes full of chemicals called “flavor packs.” Mmm, delicious, fresh-squeezed ethyl-butyrate!

Author Aliissa Hamilton covers this in her book, “Squeezed: What You Don’t Know About Orange Juice.” Of her findings, she writes on the Civl Eats blog:

Juice companies therefore hire flavor and fragrance companies, the same ones that formulate perfumes for Dior and Calvin Klein, to engineer flavor packs to add back to the juice to make it taste fresh. Flavor packs aren’t listed as an ingredient on the label because technically they are derived from orange essence and oil. Yet those in the industry will tell you that the flavor packs, whether made for reconstituted or pasteurized orange juice, resemble nothing found in nature. The packs added to juice earmarked for the North American market tend to contain high amounts of ethyl butyrate, a chemical in the fragrance of fresh squeezed orange juice that, juice companies have discovered, Americans favor.


Basically, you're drinking re-flavored sugar-water that at one point was orange juice.
 

Taverner

(55,476 posts)
21. I just want to know what's in the "flavor pack"
Thu Feb 14, 2013, 12:25 AM
Feb 2013

Problem with GMOs is we don't know the long term effects

TroglodyteScholar

(5,477 posts)
2. There's no "there" there...
Wed Feb 13, 2013, 02:35 PM
Feb 2013

What's shocking about any of this? Coca-Cola does everything they can to provide a product with consistent characteristics year round? For shame!

TroglodyteScholar

(5,477 posts)
17. Was anyone actually under the impression...
Wed Feb 13, 2013, 10:53 PM
Feb 2013

...that there's some guy squeezing oranges directly into the Simply Orange jugs? Gimme a break.

TroglodyteScholar

(5,477 posts)
19. And so do all the other "orange juice" companies.
Thu Feb 14, 2013, 12:10 AM
Feb 2013

If you're aware of one that has a guy squeezing oranges into jugs, I'd be interested to hear about it.

Rosco T.

(6,496 posts)
3. Absolute Horseshit... cry wolf when you see a rabbit...
Wed Feb 13, 2013, 02:43 PM
Feb 2013

read the bloomburg article and absolutely nothing 'frankenstein' in it.. note the OP left off the first paragraph of the blog..

"Confession! I do not drink much orange juice. I do not ever buy those giant, brightly colored cartoon jugs that look like caricatures of life, those carefully molded plastic things covered in scripty fonts and clip-art trees and pretty, hyper-saturated oranges made to look as if your own exploited Mexican laborer picked them five minutes ago and squeezed them into a drinking glass just for you, and then died."

so he knows nothing, has nothing to do but disparage those that do drink juice..

worthless, useless and fear-mongering.

 

ChisolmTrailDem

(9,463 posts)
6. I would bet that the writer was experiencing writer's block when
Wed Feb 13, 2013, 03:13 PM
Feb 2013

he glanced over to see a Simply Orange commercial on his muted TV and a light bulb went on over his head.

 

ChisolmTrailDem

(9,463 posts)
4. The article is a diatribe that never got around to describing the nature
Wed Feb 13, 2013, 03:02 PM
Feb 2013

of the Simply Orange manufacturing process, which it seemed to have promised at the outset. Indeed, since I am a consumer of Simply Orange, I was expecting to learn more about it but the article turned into a mini-treatise against food manufacturing that offered no cheese to go with the whine.

backscatter712

(26,355 posts)
9. Fair point, because the manufacture of "fresh-squeezed" orange juice is Frankensteinian.
Wed Feb 13, 2013, 04:08 PM
Feb 2013

Here's a article that describes the processing of "not-from-concentrate" orange juice.

http://civileats.com/2009/05/06/freshly-squeezed-the-truth-about-orange-juice-in-boxes/

TL/DR: They strip the oxygen from the juice in the vat, which also strips the juice of flavor. At that point, it's nothing but sugar-water. Then, when they bottle/box it, they add perfumes and flavorings to the "juice" to make it taste sort of like orange juice again.

tkmorris

(11,138 posts)
7. There is nothing whatever unusual about this juice
Wed Feb 13, 2013, 03:24 PM
Feb 2013

It's true that some people, when they are actually told how it is made, are surprised. They shouldn't be. Do you really believe that the details of how virtually any product available in your local supermarket are substantially less complex? Track your meat back to it's source sometime. Hell, check out how any of the other juice products on the same shelf as Simply Orange are produced.

This is a hit piece on Coca Cola. It's odd because this is a company that richly deserves to be exposed for some of their business practices but the methods used to bring this juice to the shelves are not one of them.

RebelOne

(30,947 posts)
13. Gotta agree. I have tried it and it is quite good,
Wed Feb 13, 2013, 04:14 PM
Feb 2013

but the price is too high. I could buy 100% Florida orange juice much cheaper.

sinkingfeeling

(51,275 posts)
8. I agree with Mark completely. I hate this continuing homogenizing of everything in this
Wed Feb 13, 2013, 03:48 PM
Feb 2013

country and the irrational fear of anything or anybody or any belief that doesn't conform. If you want to eat this junk, more power to you.

backscatter712

(26,355 posts)
12. Mmm, de-oxygenated, de-flavored, then re-flavored sugar water!!!
Wed Feb 13, 2013, 04:13 PM
Feb 2013

It's a substance that's almost, but not quite, entirely unlike orange juice!

LiberalAndProud

(12,799 posts)
15. Sunny Delight is orange.
Wed Feb 13, 2013, 04:28 PM
Feb 2013

But there aren't many oranges in it. I'm sure that's much better for us.

Ingredients: Water, High Fructose, Corn Syrup and 2% or Less of Each of the Following: Concentrated Juices (Orange, Tangerine, Apple, Lime, Grapefruit). Citric Acid, Ascorbic Acid (Vitamin C), Beta-Carotene, Thiamin Hydrochloride (Vitamin B1), Natural Flavors, Food Starch-Modified, Canola Oil, Cellulose Gum, Xanthan Gum, Sodium Hexametaphosphate, Sodium Benzoate To Protect Flavor, Yellow #5, Yellow #6

GaYellowDawg

(4,443 posts)
22. That entire line is terrible.
Thu Feb 14, 2013, 03:20 AM
Feb 2013

There's Simply Orange, Simply Lime, etc. What all of it should be named is "Simply Awful."

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