Alissa Hamilton, author of Squeezed: What You Don't Know about Orange Juice was featured in a recent article from Men’s Health magazine titled “The Worst Chemicals in Your Food.”
While many orange juice brands tout their products as “all natural” and “freshly squeezed” the fruit beverage’s delicious flavor does not come wholly from freshly squeezed oranges from the grove. More often than not, commercial orange juice contains “flavor packs,” which are essences and oils that recreate the taste of freshly squeezed oranges. According to Hamilton, the secret to attaining that fresh orange flavor is as mysterious as the secret formula to make Coca Cola! But one ingredient is known to be present in these flavor packs: ethyl butyrate. Though it remains an FDA-approved food additive, many juice brands are fighting pending class-action lawsuits against them for having allegedly misled their customers.
Squeezed explores the obscure history of orange juice and how it became a staple item in refrigerators across the U.S. What’s more, she sheds light on how much of the orange juice-production process is remains largely unknown to consumers. This illuminating book’s case study of the orange juice industry leads one to ponder the book’s prevailing question: “Why we don’t know how our food ends up our supermarket shelf?”
