Orange juice deemed “100% juice” is not really 100% juice, a report at Civil Eats shows.

The yummy juice we love so much goes through a rather depressing process. The outcome turn out not to be 100% juice from concentrate, but 100% artificial juice that is not from concentrate.

Once the juice is squeezed and stored in gigantic vats, they start removing oxygen. Why? Because removing oxygen from the juice allows the liquid to keep for up to a year without spoiling. But! Removing that oxygen also removes the natural flavors of oranges. Yeah, it’s all backwards. So in order to have OJ actually taste like oranges, drink companies hire flavor and fragrance companies, the same ones that make perfumes for Dior, to create these “flavor packs” to make juice taste like, well, juice again.

This is why different 100% orange juice products taste so different. It isn’t because the oranges they use are so different, or the process of making their 100% real orange juice is so different. The reason is because they are all artificial and use different flavor packs. The worst part? These orange flavor packs, despite being chemically altered, don’t even need to be listed as an ingredient because they are made from orange byproducts.

Source: The Huffington Post

If you are purchasing “100% juice” products not made from concentrate in mainstream grocery stores, you may actually be tasting a combination of flavor chemicals. After oranges are squeezed for juice, the juice is stored in large holding tanks and the oxygen is extracted. This process allows the juice to sit for up to a year without spoiling, and makes the juice completely flavorless. As a result, the industry uses “flavor packs” to add synthetic orange flavor to the flavorless juice.

FoodRenegade reports:

Juice companies therefore hire flavor and fragrance companies … to engineer flavor packs to add back to the juice to make it taste fresh. Flavor packs aren’t listed as an ingredient on the label because technically they are derived from orange essence and oil. Yet those in the industry will tell you that the flavor packs, whether made for reconstituted or pasteurized orange juice, resemble nothing found in nature.