Concentrated Orange Juice

Oranges must ripen on the tree, between December and June, before they can be picked. In Florida 98 percent of all oranges are harvested by hand after testing determines that the ratio of Brix (soluble sugar content) to acidity is just right. The ripe oranges are transported to a processing plant, washed, and graded and the juice is extracted. Next the peel, pulp, and seeds are removed. The juice can be pasteurized for “not from concentrate” products or it can go into vacuum evaporators, where most of the water is removed. The concentrated orange juice is then chilled and frozen. It is packaged into cans for sale in supermarkets or shipped by tanker truck to dairies, to be reconstituted with fresh water and packaged into cardboard cartons, glass bottles, or plastic jugs.