We are thrilled to introduce Haley Russo to our FSHN Research Journeys series, which follows graduate students’ research in the Food Science and Human Nutrition program at The University of Florida. Haley is a food science master’s degree student, and she is on a mission to discover how to counteract the negative effects of citrus greening disease on the flavor of orange juice. By studying consumer preferences for different juices and juice blends, Haley seeks ways to give consumers the familiar sweet flavor of orange juice.

Haley: As the sun rises each morning, people across the country gather around a breakfast table to start their day. While the meals themselves may vary, there is one thing, along with coffee, that remains constant on many breakfast tables: a chilled glass of orange juice.

Orange juice is the most popular fruit juice consumed worldwide.¹ The global orange juice market is a multibillion-dollar industry and is worth $6.9 billion in the state of Florida alone.² Consumers commonly enjoy this juice with breakfast for its immune system-boosting vitamins and other health-promoting compounds.¹ Two types of ready to drink orange juice commonly sold on the market are Not From Concentrate (NFC) and Reconstituted From Concentrate (RFC).

From Concentrate and Not From Concentrate Orange Juice: What’s the Difference?

Frozen orange juice concentrate was invented in the 1940s to get vitamin C to people in war-torn Europe. The beverage became a hit when it reached the retail market soon after.³ Orange juice concentrate is produced by thermally evaporating orange juice down to a concentrate, resulting in decreased operating and transportation costs and increased stability.⁴ With advancements in food technology, juice producers added the water back to create “Ready to Drink” orange juice from the juice concentrate seen in the refrigerated aisles of grocery stores today.³

NFC orange juice is made by extracting the juice from oranges, then pasteurizing and packaging the juice.⁵ Due to the larger volume of the product compared to OJ concentrate, NFC juice is more costly to produce, store, and distribute, but it is marketed as a “premium” experience with superior flavor as it is not subject to the heat of evaporation. NFC orange juice is liquid gold for Florida orange juice producers. Almost 80% of Florida’s oranges used for processing are made into NFC juice.²

The Bitter Truth and Sweet Solution

For two decades, a bacterial pathogen has devastated the citrus industry. Oranges infected with citrus greening disease are described as both bitter and sour and are lacking in sugar and orange flavor.⁶ Legally, orange juice needs to contain a certain amount of sugar, so the lower sugar content and off flavors of infected oranges is making it challenging for Florida producers to make 100% NFC juice. 

Scientists across the world are working tirelessly to find a cure for citrus greening disease. In the meantime, to increase the sweetness of their juice, some NFC orange juice producers are adding juice concentrate to their product. While this practice creates a sweeter blend, it prevents producers from being able to sell the juice as “Not From Concentrate”.

It has been assumed that consumers prefer the idea of NFC orange juice to RFC juice as they believe it to be a more premium experience, causing understandable anxiety for producers who are no longer able to make NFC orange juice due to the poor quality of infected oranges. Yet researchers have not studied this assumption to see if it is true. Do orange juice consumers really care if their morning glass of OJ is NFC or RFC? Can they tell a difference when they taste the two side by side? Answering these questions has been the main goal of my master’s research project.

From the Garden State to Gator Country

Growing up through chilly New Jersey winters, I always wanted to head south for college. With its nationally recognized food science program and the opportunity to cheer on the Gators in some of the best sporting events in the country, I knew UF was the place for me. I fell in love with sensory science during my time as an undergraduate student. I wanted to stay here for graduate school after working at the UF Taste Panel and learning about human perception of flavor from Dr. Charles Sims, Dr. Linda Bartoshuk, and Dr. Asli Odabasi.

My interest in citrus was sparked when I volunteered at the annual International Citrus and Beverage Conference in Clearwater Beach in the fall of 2023. I learned from industry leaders and researchers all over the world about how they are working together to keep the industry alive despite the challenges it is facing.

Understanding Consumer Preferences

The initial part of my research project involved a survey of almost 3,000 orange juice consumers across the country. We asked questions about their OJ consumption habits, what types of juice they buy, and how they would feel about seeing the terms “Not From Concentrate”, “From Concentrate”, and “Made with a blend of Not From Concentrate and From Concentrate juice” on orange juice bottles. Along with these queries, we asked additional questions to understand if the average consumer knows what the terms mean with regard to orange juice processing.

Conducting a Blind Taste Test of RFC versus NFC

Once I gained insights into consumers’ minds regarding what they think about different juice types, it was time to see if their tastebuds agree. The next step in the study required a few trips to the grocery store to obtain enough orange juice to serve almost 100 people at each of the five panels held. In every panel, we served NFC orange juice and RFC orange juice as is and blended in the following ratios:

• Sample 1: 100% NFC juice
• Sample 2: 25% RFC + 75% NFC blend
• Sample 3: 50% RFC + 50% NFC blend
• Sample 4: 75% RFC + 25% NFC blend
• Sample 5: 100% RFC juice

For replication purposes, we used two different brands of each juice type in four tests. On a computer survey, panelists told us how much they liked each sample and rated other attributes such as color, sweetness, sourness, and bitterness.

Peeling Away the Challenges

Government regulation states that all NFC orange juice must have a minimum Brix value 10.5° and that RFC orange juice must have a minimum Brix value of 11.8°.⁷ In terms of orange juice, the degrees Brix is related to the amount of orange solids in the juice, but you can think of it as the level of sugar in a juice.

Because of its higher Brix values, RFC orange juice will be sweeter which may cause panelists to give the juice a higher score in certain categories, even when the attribute is not related to sweetness, or may lead to an inflated liking score just because the juice is sweeter. This positive rating of an unrelated attribute is due to something called the Halo Effect.⁸

To level the playing field, during the final panel (Panel 5), we used the same juice samples as in Panel 4, but we brought the Brix value of the RFC juice samples down to the same level as the NFC juice. This change ensured that any differences in consumer acceptance during this panel were not because one juice was sweeter than the other.

Survey Reveals Consumers Prefer Not From Concentrate Over From Concentrate Label

An overview of the survey data shows that consumers do see the two types of orange juice differently. Although 100% orange juice is the only ingredient in both juices (and additional water if the juice is RFC), more consumers associate From Concentrate orange juice with being artificial, low-quality, and having added ingredients like sugar and preservatives.

On the other hand, while consumers may believe NFC juice is more expensive, they also associate it with terms such as “Natural”, “Fresh Squeezed”, “Healthy”, and “High Quality” more than juice from concentrate. When it comes to terms consumers want to see on their bottle of orange juice, they favor “Not From Concentrate” over “From Concentrate” and “Made with a blend of Not From Concentrate and From Concentrate Juice”.

Blind Taste Panel Yields Surprising Results

The overall liking data from the taste panels showed that there were no differences between the 100% NFC and 100% RFC samples. The only significant differences in overall liking of the juice were between one juice blend and a 100% RFC sample in all five panels. When it came to ranking of the juices from Most Preferred to Least Preferred, there was also no clear winner. In one of the panels, participants ranked the NFC juice as significantly more preferred to RFC, and in another panel, it was the other way around.

Using the combined power of a consumer survey and a taste panel, we see that individuals have strong opinions on juice type at the store and when looking at the bottle. Yet when it comes to blind tasting the juice, consumers like both juice types about the same. I will continue to investigate even more consumer insights relating to RFC and NFC orange juice. In the meantime, I hope these results will be useful to producers making the switch from NFC to From Concentrate juice. Additionally, these results may spark initiatives to better educate consumers on what the terms “Not From Concentrate” and “From Concentrate” really mean.

Haley Russo is a second-year master’s student in Dr. Charles Sims’s lab. Born and raised in New Jersey, she enjoys spending time in the Florida sun exploring all that Gainesville has to offer and taking any opportunity to travel around the Sunshine State. Haley received her bachelor’s degree in food science from UF in 2023 and is excited to become a Double Gator!

References

1. Kowalska, M., Konopska, J., Feszterová, M., Zbikowska, A., & Kowalska, B. (2023). Quality Assessment of Natural Juices and Consumer Preferences in the Range of Citrus Fruit Juices. Applied Sciences, 13(2), Article 2. https://doi.org/10.3390/app13020765
2. Zansler, M. (2024, September 18). Florida Orange Juice Outlook. [Conference Presentation]. International Citrus and Beverage Conference, Clearwater, FL, United States. https://conference.ifas.ufl.edu/citrus/documents/presentations/2-1620-Zansler.pdf
3. Morris, R.A. 2010. The U.S. Orange and Grapefruit Juice Markets: History, Development, Growth and Change. EDIS document FE834, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida
4. Bozkir, H., & Baysal, T. (2017). Concentration of apple juice using a vacuum microwave evaporator as a novel technique: Determination of quality characteristics. Journal of Food Process Engineering, 40(5), e12535. https://doi.org/10.1111/jfpe.12535
5. Sun, R., Xing, R., Zhang, J., Wei, L., Ge, Y., Deng, T., Zhang, W., & Chen, Y. (2022). Authentication and quality evaluation of not from concentrate and from concentrate orange juice by HS-SPME-GC-MS coupled with chemometrics. LWT, 162, 113504. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lwt.2022.113504
6. Dala-Paula, B. M., Plotto, A., Bai, J., Manthey, J. A., Baldwin, E. A., Ferrarezi, R. S., & Gloria, M. B. A. (2019). Effect of Huanglongbing or Greening Disease on Orange Juice Quality, a Review. Frontiers in Plant Science, 9.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpls.2018.01976
7. 21 CFR 146.140—Pasteurized orange juice. FDA Code of Federal Regulations Title 21
8. Lanero, A., Vázquez, J.-L., & Sahelices-Pinto, C. (2021). Halo Effect and Source Credibility in the Evaluation of Food Products Identified by Third-Party Certified Eco-Labels: Can Information Prevent Biased Inferences? Foods, 10(11), 2512. https://doi.org/10.3390/foods10112512

Looking for more posts exploring graduate research projects in the FSHN Department at the University of Florida?

Dive into the Research Journeys of other graduate students below.

M.S. Food Science
M.S. Nutritional Sciences
Ph.D. Food Science
Ph.D. Nutritional Sciences

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