juicy tidbit - Brief Article

This past January, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), issued new rules on juice processing aimed at eliminating future outbreaks of non-pasteurized juice-born diseases such as Salmonella and E. coli. "This is an important step forward to protect consumers from food-born illnesses," says Charlotte Christin, a food safety attorney from the consumer watchdog group Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI).

These new policies will affect nearly all juice processors. "Pasteurized juices already pass the test; these changes will affect those producers that didn't pasteurize," Christin adds. The only producers of non-pasteurized juice not affected by these new rules are those retailers that serve fresh-squeezed juices, such as juice bars. Pasteurization along with higher standards of sanitation in juice processing plants will decrease the chances of bacterial infestation, which can and has poisoned hundreds in the last 10 years. According to the CSPI, in recent years there have been several outbreaks of both salmonella and E. coli caused by non-pasteurized juices. The largest Salmonella outbreak occurred in June and July or 1999 in which almost 400 were affected as a result of consuming non-pasteurized orange juice laden with the bacteria.