Grand jury indicts two fruit juice manufacturers

FDA Consumer, May, 1993

As the result of an intensive investigation by FDA's Detroit district office, a federal grand jury, on Feb. 18, returned a 33-count indictment against two fruit juice manufacturers and seven individuals. The indictment charges that the defendants defrauded the public by replacing orange juice with low-cost, inferior ingredients in their orange juice products.

The indictment alleges that between 1979 and 1991, Peninsular Products Company of Lansing, Mich., and Flavor Fresh Foods Corporation of Chicago used beet sugar, citric acid, amino acids, and orange pulp wash in foods they falsely labeled and sold as orange juice from concentrate and concentrated orange juice for manufacturing. By using these ingredients in place of natural orange juice, the firms were able to sell their products at inflated prices, defrauding the public of more than $10 million between 1984 and 1990 alone.

The two firms also added preservatives, including the antibiotic natamycin, to their products. Although the products containing natamycin do not pose a health risk, the preservative has not been tested for use in beverages and is not approved by FDA for such use. The agency has only approved natamycin for food use on cheeses to prevent mold growth.

Peninsular Products sold the orange juice under the Orchard Grove label. Flavor Fresh was sold under its own brand name. In addition, Peninsular packaged and sold adulterated orange juice under at least 23 other private label brands. The indictment does not allege that other private label distributors had any knowledge that the Peninsular or Flavor Fresh orange juice sold under their labels contained adulterants.

Products were sold in at least 11 states, including Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee. In addition, they were sold to numerous school districts under the U.S. Department of Agriculture school breakfast program, including Chicago area schools, the St. Louis, Mo., school system, and various Michigan schools, such as those in the Lansing, Grand Rapids, and Detroit areas.