FDA Proposal: Lower Orange Juice’s Minimum Brix Level (Sugar Content)

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) may change the Standard of Identity (SOI) for pasteurized orange juice in the U.S. in order to help protect Florida orange growers who have seen their crop’s brix level (measurement of sugar content of a liquid) drop over the decades due to weather and the “citrus greening” disease.

The SOI has been in place for more than 60 years, and the FDA’s proposed rule would lower the minimum Brix requirement from 10.5 to 10.0. The decrease is not expected to affect the taste of orange juice, the FDA noted, and it will have minimal impact on the nutrients found in orange juice.

The Florida Citrus Processors Assn. and Florida Citrus Mutual submitted a citizen petition in 2022 in support of this change, and the FDA’s action is a response to that move. It’s also the latest proposed update in FDA’s ongoing review of more than 250 SOIs in its portfolio. In July, FDA announced it was revoking or proposing to revoke 52 food standards of identity it considered to be obsolete and unnecessary.

The SOI for pasteurized orange juice was established by FDA in 1963 to protect the interests of consumers and reflect their expectations for orange juice, the current announcement noted. At that point the brix level was set at 10.5. However, Florida orange growers have seen the brix levels in their fruits steadily decline over the past few decades due to severe weather and the citrus-greening disease, which ruins the fruit and eventually kills the tree. In addition, severe weather has hurt crops and contributed to lower brix content in surviving fruit.

Lowering the minimum brix level for pasteurized orange juice would help manufacturers avoid having to import high-brix orange juice from other nations to meet the SOI requirements in the U.S.

Comments may be submitted on the proposal for 90 days, FDA said.