I've known this for a long time. I think CBC did a radio essay on it a few years ago. Once you get over the fact that the "big scary company" is messing with your food, and realize that all levels of company, big and small, scary or not, are messing with your food and have been since the industrial revolution (and earlier), You realize that this isn't really a big deal. Chemical names like ethyl butyrate are scary, but when you think that Cyanide comes from apple seeds, and that Bananas are naturally radioactive, it's no scary than anything else you're putting in your body.
While I agree that it probably sounds a lot worse than it is, I find it pretty disingenuous to write that it's just 100% fresh orange juice, and I don't think it should be legal to misrepresent your product in such a way. I won't stop drinking this sort of juice, though. It tastes fucking good compared to the juice from concentrate. As long as you're aware that juice is general is quite sugary, and consume it in moderate amounts, why would it be any problem?
I mean, the reason they're allowed to do it is because they're technically correct within the limits of what the FDA describes as "100%". but it's still horse hockey. I don't drink almost any juice - it's all too sweet for me. I drink tonic water (which has its own problems like salt).I find it pretty disingenuous to write that it's just 100% fresh orange juice, and I don't think it should be legal to misrepresent your product in such a way.
(3) If the beverage contains 100 percent juice and also contains non-juice ingredients that do not result in a diminution of the juice soluble solids or, in the case of expressed juice, in a change in the volume, when the 100 percent juice declaration appears on a panel of the label that does not also bear the ingredient statement, it must be accompanied by the phrase "with added ___," the blank filled in with a term such as "ingredient(s)," "preservative," or "sweetener," as appropriate (e.g., "100% juice with added sweetener"), except that when the presence of the non-juice ingredient(s) is declared as a part of the statement of identity of the product, this phrase need not accompany the 100 percent juice declaration.
I'm not going to lie, this article made me want juice.