Apple, orange, pureed or filtered. The wide range of tastes, colours and consistencies often gives us a lot of trouble. Which juice to choose? Which one has the most vitamins? Which juice strengthens our immunity?
How is it with juice?
Depending on the production method, we distinguish between juices, nectars, fruit and vegetable drinks, direct juices and juices from concentrate, naturally cloudy juices, clear juices, pureed juices, concentrated juices. Below is a brief description of each product and its characteristics.
Juice
True juice is a product obtained from at least one species of ripe, fresh and chilled fruit. Importantly, it has the colour and flavour which are characteristic of the fruit from which it is obtained. Juice is often enriched with fruit pulp. Legislation prohibits the addition to juice of colourings and preservatives derived from ingredients other than pulp and pomace which are produced during juice production. Natural juices can be further subdivided into fruit, vegetable or fruit and vegetable juices.With regard to pasteurisation, a distinction can be made between unpasteurised juices, juices with a short shelf life (so-called 'one-day juices') and pasteurised juices.
Nectar
Nectar contains between 25% and almost 100% natural fruit juice or puree. If less than 100% juice/purée is added, the difference is made up with water. Additions of honey and sugar are permitted, but the addition of colourings and preservatives to nectar is prohibited.
Fruit/vegetable drink
The CSO states that a fruit/vegetable drink contains min. 20% added juice or fruit puree. The drinks are pasteurised so that there is no need to add preservatives. It is permitted to add e.g. spices to beverages.
Direct juice
This is a type of juice made directly from raw juice. This type of juice undergoes pasteurisation or refrigeration and has a correspondingly short shelf life.
Cloudy juice
Cloudy juices are obtained from juices that have not been clarified and filtered so that they contain fragments of pulp. They are rich in bioactive ingredients such as flavonoids.
Clarified juices
This is a type of juice which, after extraction, undergoes direct treatment in the form of clarification, i.e. separation of solid particles - the pulp - from the liquid parts. It contains fewer bioactive compounds than cloudy juice, but is still a source of many vitamins.
Puréed juice
Is obtained from pureed fruit and/or vegetables. Contains many bioactive compounds, vitamins, pectins.
