California Oranges: Higher Production Costs and Depreciating Market

Hope everybody is well rested after the long weekend. I was AFK (Away From Keyboard) for 3 full days, and it felt great to be in out in nature, on the river and amongst family.

Now: back at it.

P.S. Not many people recognized the logo on that pin in last Thursday’s edition: That was the original Tropicana logo!

Juice News 🧃

Tetra Pak and other majors join manufacturing alliance

Food Manufacturing Technologies Europe (FMTE) is made up of packaging manufacturer Tetra Pak, fluid handling equipment company Alfa Laval, bottling machine producer Krones and key processing player SPX Flow.

The alliance was launched to address the “lack of a unified voice” in the sector. It hopes to play several key roles in the food industry: boosting R&D, influencing policy, and strengthening “resilience and competitiveness” in the sector.

Olipop Vs. Poppi: The First Social Media Driven Arms Race in The Beverage World

Many, many industry insiders have had to eat their words in the past few months when someone brings up “prebiotic soda” or “Poppi” or “Olipop.” Fiber in my soda? Ridiculous! From a top-line perspective this segment has appeared out of nowhere in the past two years alone. The speed of its emergence reminds me a lot of “Greek yogurt” in the 2000s or vodka seltzers in 2010s. According to NielsenIQ data just released by Axios, this new soft drink segment yielded about $776M in past 12-month sales (presumably MULO) as of early January 2025.

Does taxing sugary drinks result in better health outcomes? What some cities have found

Experts say drinking a lot of sweetened beverages can lead to obesity, diabetes and heart disease. This week, the federal government reversed decades of policy and allowed states to ban the use of food stamps to buy soda and other sweetened drinks. In addition, a handful of cities have put taxes on them over strong objections from the beverage industry

Major Coca-Cola bottler revolutionizes how its beverages are served — here's how it's saving thousands

Swire Coca-Cola manufactures, distributes, and sells Coca-Cola and other beverage brands throughout 13 states in the western U.S.

According to its website, it delivers its products to 31 million customers and pulls in $3 billion in revenue annually. It's easy to imagine that it also creates a titanic amount of pollution.

Sugar consumed through soda, fruit juice consistently linked to higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes

After correcting for body mass index, excess energy intake and several other lifestyle risk factors, the researchers found the following dose-response relationships:

With each additional 12-oz serving of sugar-sweetened beverages (i.e., soft drinks, energy drinks and sports drinks) per day, the risk of developing T2D increased by 25%. This strong relationship showed that the increased risk began from the very first daily serving with no minimum threshold below which intake appeared to be safe.

Soluna launches cold-pressed juice from signature Bravo apples

Soluna has announced the launch of Soluna Apple Juice, a cold-pressed juice made exclusively from its signature ANABP 01 apples, also branded as Bravo apples in Australia.

The company said in a release that the product delivers a bold, naturally sweet flavour with nothing added, representing a new standard in apple juice purity and taste.

CosMc’s- Inspired Beverages Will Be Landing at Hundreds of McDonald’s in the U.S. As Part of Upcoming Beverage Test

What started as a belief that McDonald’s had the right to win in the fast-growing beverage space quickly came to life as a multi-location, small format, beverage-focused concept. It allowed us to test new, bold flavors and different technologies and processes – without impacting the existing McDonald’s experience for customers and crew. By creating a Learning Lab – in a way that only McDonald’s can – the CosMc’s team was able to test-and-learn in real customer-facing environments, which allowed for greater agility and speed. Quick adds and edits to the menu based on feedback led to more focused choices for our fans as the test continued.

Jobs 👋🏻

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Needed – Product Formulations Scientist, Central Florida

Lead product formulations from concept through commercialization and launch. Enhance existing products and process efficiency. Collaborate with cross-functional team members and external partners to deliver high-quality, safe, and cost-effective products that deliver in the marketplace. Work in our new Innovation Center lab, test kitchens and manufacturing environments. 

The Food Talent Network

Citrus News 🍊

South Africa delegation visits the U.S. to work out tariff concerns

In the latest edition of the Citrus Growers' Association of South Africa’s From the Desk of the CEO, the organization reported that President Cyril Ramaphosa traveled to the United States to reset trade relations and address ongoing tariff concerns.

CGA's CEO, Boitshoko Ntshabele, called the meeting significant, "as it marked a moment of potential renewal in global trade and underscored the need to resolve South Africa’s serious rural crime problem."

Favourable conditions hint at fruitful citrus season across Australia

Citrus growers are confident the 2025 season will be a bountiful harvest and lead to a potentially record-breaking export year. Growers have faced challenges with rising wages, operating costs and warmer weather delaying fruit maturing.

California citrus growers battle production cost increases in a depreciating market

Valencias, the summer oranges, recently started their season and will supply the marketplace throughout the summer, alongside the final navel orange harvests.

Casey Creamer, CEO of California Citrus Mutual, told FreshFruitPortal that committee members have concluded they overestimated the state’s supply this year. "We are starting to see demand pick up, which is good for the growers, but also it was a missed opportunity throughout the season," Creamer said.

Research Worth Reading 🔬

Unveiling Prophage Diversity and Host Interactions in Liberibacter: Genomic Insights for Phage Therapy Against Citrus Huanglongbing

In this study, we examined the genomes of 48 Liberibacter strains and identified 191 prophages, which are virus-like entities found within the bacterial genomes. These prophages were classified into 17 types, 13 of which were newly discovered.

Exploring aroma changes in thermally and ultrasonically processed pomegranate juice based on multidimensional gas chromatography and multivariate statistical analysis

Flavor deterioration during juice processing limits industrial-scale pomegranate juice (PJ) production. To evaluate the effects of thermal and non-thermal processing on PJ flavor, three samples—pasteurized (PS), high-temperature short-time treated (HTST), and ultrasound-treated (US)—were analyzed against a fresh control (FJ).

Dual process for improved recovery of essential oil and pectin from citrus waste

The proposed sequential PEF and reactive extrusion treatment is a novel and competitive approach for the simultaneous extraction of essential oil and pectin from citrus industrial waste with competitive values as compared to reports in the literature. Further optimization of operating conditions and detailed characterization of the extracted pectin are recommended to enhance the process efficiency and product quality.