Squeezed

Alissa Hamilton on the Dr. Oz Show

Last week, Alissa Hamilton appeared on the Dr. Oz Show for an interview segment, "Is Your Orange Juice Safe?" Watch the show online and read below her responses to the questions of Juice: What You Need to Know.

To ensure that your orange juice is not tainted by contaminants, Dr. Oz recommends looking "for orange juice made only with oranges grown in the US."  However, just because an orange juice label doesn't say the carton contains orange juice from other countries doesn't mean it doesn't contain orange flavoring material from other countries.

It's important to remember that the flavor packs going into orange juice are not derived from the same oranges that are squeezed to make that batch of orange juice. As I mentioned on the show, Brazil is the world leader in orange production. That means it is also a leading supplier of orange flavoring material. So even if your carton of orange juice doesn't contain orange juice from Brazil, it still may contain flavoring material from Brazil, flavoring material that is made up of essential oils that are extracted from the orange peel where the banned fungicide Carbendazim accumulates. 

Unfortunately it is impossible for the consumer to know whether their orange juice contains flavoring material from Brazil because the orange juice companies have actively fought to avoid disclosure on the label of the addition of flavor packs.

 

Alissa Hamilton on ABC World News with Diane Sawyer

Watch Alissa Hamilton on a "Consumer Watch Dog" segment on ABC World News with Diane Sawyer!  (Guest hosted by George Stephanopoulos)  Read the full ABC interview online.