Orange Juice Comparison – Which One To Choose?

Orange juice is one of the most popular fruit juices thanks to its excellent taste and high nutritional value. Just one glass of orange juice meets our daily requirement for vitamin C and provides antioxidants, B vitamins and, amongst others, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, sodium and zinc.

Our comparison includes nine different orange juices available in popular supermarkets. You might think all orange juices are similar, but these ones differ in composition, and sometimes a lot. When we realised this, we decided to put together this comparison list to make it easy for you to choose the best orange juice for you. You might have thought choosing orange juice was easy, because what else is in there other than squeezed orange? And this is where I’ll surprise you…

What is reconstituted juice?

Reconstituted juice is obtained from concentrate and requires several steps. Freshly squeezed orange juice is turned into a concentrate by having all the water evaporated from it. Before being poured into the orange juice bottle you buy, the concentrate is mixed with the same amount of water that was originally evaporated from it. Producers do this because of the high costs of water storage and when the fruit does not grow in their climate zone. Unfortunately, reconstituted juice is exposed to high temperatures several times, meaning that it contains less vitamin C and temperature-sensitive antioxidants. If you decide to use a juice from a reconstituted concentrate, it’s worth choosing cloudier ones due to their higher fibre content and nutritional value.

Comparison of orange juices

As many as 3 out of the 9 juices we looked at deserve our recommendation – Woolworths Orange Juice Pulp Free 2l, The Juice Brothers Orange 1.5l, and Nudie Nothing But Oranges With Pulp 2l. These all contain only 100% orange juice, which is a great result. Also on the podium was Original Juice Pulp Free Orange Juice 1.5l, which contains 99.9% of orange juice and the addition of vitamin C. Thumbs up for them preparing the juice with Australian grown oranges.

Eastcoast Beverages Orange Juice Chilled and Grove Juice Signature Orange Juice With Pulp Chilled deserve a neutral mark in our ranking. Despite the fact that they have a juice content of 99.9%, they also contain an added preservative (202). Potassium sorbate is indeed a safe food additive, but it’s definitely better to choose products that don’t contain such additives.

Another juice in this group is Daily Juice Pulp Free Orange Juice 2l and Fruit Co Juice Plus + Orange. Both come from juice reconstituted from concentrate. The first one also contains a preservative (202), natural flavours, vitamin C and acidity regulator (330), which is simply citric acid. Fruit Co Juice Plus + Orange, on the other hand, contains dietary fibre (Acacia), natural flavour, food acid (Citric) and vitamin C and is slightly better than Daily Juice Pulp Free Orange Juice 2l.

The list also includes Coles Orange Fruit Drink. It is not a classic orange juice, but you can see how much a fruit drink differs from orange juice. In the composition, we find water in first place, then juice from a reconstituted concentrate at only 25%, sugar, and a few food additives. These kinds of fruit drinks are the worst choice, and it’s easy to make that mistake in the aisle because they are sold in the same bottles with similar labels to orange juice. This is another reason why it’s necessary to read food labels, because only this way can you distinguish a good product from one that’s poor quality.

Summary

We hope our overview helps you choose the right orange juice.

Choose those with 100% orange juice, like Woolworths Orange Juice Pulp Free 2l, The Juice Brothers Orange 1.5l and Nudie Nothing But Oranges With Pulp 2l. It’s best to avoid the rest 😉

The Orange Juice products that we have looked at and compared:

• Woolworths Orange Juice Pulp Free 2l
• Daily Juice Pulp Free Orange Juice 2l
• The Juice Brothers Orange 1.5l
• Original Juice Pulp Free Orange Juice 1.5l
• Nudie Nothing But Oranges With Pulp 2l
• Grove Juice Signature Orange Juice With Pulp Chilled
• Coles Orange Fruit Drink
• Fruit Co Juice Plus + Orange
• Eastcoast Beverages Orange Juice Chilled