Analytical Report - Fruit juice drinks

Introduction

Fruit juice is made from juice, usually concentrated juice to which water is added prior to production replacing the natural water content lost in the concentration process. Some have sugar added, along with vitamins and minerals. They may also be carbonated and permitted food additives added.

Fruit juice drinks contain fruit juice diluted with water, above that naturally present in the juice. Sugar and sweeteners plus other permitted additives may be added as well as invariably flavourings to boost the juice taste. The actual juice content varies between products.

Fruit juice drinks can easily be confused with fruit juices. They are often packed in the same types of container and may even be displayed in chiller cabinets. The difference should be obvious from the name of the food on the pack. Juices will have the name of the fruit followed by the word juice e.g. apple juice, orange juice from concentrate. Juice drinks will include the word ‘drink’ in their name e.g. Orange juice drink, Apple & Raspberry Juice Drink. However, there is no legal requirement to give the name of the food on the front of the pack. There may therefore be a ‘fancy’ name on the front and the true name of the food, possibly in smaller writing on the side or back. Reading the ingredients list will also confirm whether the product is a juice or juice drink.

47 samples of fruit juice drinks were taken from retailers to check their composition. In addition 14 samples of juice were taken to allow comparison with the juice drinks

 

Summary of results

None of the samples had any compositional errors. Six drinks contained preservatives, sorbic acid or benzoic acid, seventeen contained one or more sweeteners and two contained artificial colours. All were within legal maximum limits.

The actual juice content of the fruit juice drinks sampled ranged from 4% to 40% of the product.

Fruit juices are naturally high in sugar. The average figures comparing juices taken and the juice drinks* are shown in the table. All figures are per 100g.

Comparison of sugar content between juice and juice drinks

	Total sugars per 100g	Fructose per 100g	Glucose per 100g	Sucrose per 100g
Juices	10.1	4.8	3.0	2.1
Drinks*	10.2	2.1	1.9	5.9

* Drinks containing artificial sweetener are excluded from these results as the use of sweeteners eliminates the need for adding sugar.

These results showed that on average the total sugars are virtually the same between juice and juice drinks. This is because many fruit juice drinks have added sugar to resemble the sweetness of a juice. Only those juice drinks containing artificial sweetener have lower levels of sugar. If the products were to be labelled under the FSA front of pack traffic light scheme for sugar content

6 would be low          
10 would be medium           
31 would be high
 

June 2006