Cold-pressed juices are all the rage in health circles these days. Juice is extracted by a hydraulic press that yields fresh juice that is both very nutritious and flavorful.
But raw juice, like raw milk, can carry significant pathogens when not prepared and stored properly. Raw juices, including cider, have made people sick. While standard pasteurization, which exposes the juice to very high heat, kills these pathogens, it also destroys some vitamins and enzymes and may alter the taste.
The solution, according to Michael Doyle, PhD, director of the Center for Food Safety at The University of Georgia—high-pressure processing (HPP—also called pascalization), which involves applying super-high pressure (equivalent to being 20 miles beneath the ocean floor) to a bottle of freshly squeezed juice. No heat is involved. The bottles don’t explode because equal pressure is applied to all sides simultaneously—the sealed bottles are floated in a tank of pressurized water—and since glass wouldn’t stand up to the pressure, plastic bottles are used.
Most cold-pressed juices distributed nationally use this technology, but local products sold in roadside stands or bottled at juice bars may not—best to avoid these. The HPP process not only inactivates illness-causing bacteria including Listeria, Salmonella, and E.coli O157:H7, but also increases shelf life from a few days to several weeks.
The end result—a safer product that still retains the nutrition and flavor of a raw juice. Now all you have to do is choose juices that aren’t too high in sugar.
Bottom line: If you want to enjoy the benefits of cold-pressed juice—safely—check the label to make sure it’s been treated with high-pressure processing.
For more food-safety tips, see Bottom Line’s article “6 Things This Food-Safety Expert Won’t Eat…And One Surprising Food He Will.”
