The New EU Fruit Juice Directive & recent

Issues seen in Europe

TCJJP Las Vegas

October 2012
Dr David A Hammond
Fruit Juice and Authenticity Expert

Eurofins Analytics
France

www.eurofins.com

Topics for today

1) New European Fruit Juice Directive
Whats new relative to the old version

2) Issues seen in the lab & detection methods

Water addition to NFC juice
C4 sugar addition to pineapple juice
Foreign fruit addition to pomegranate juice
Sugar syrup addition to apple juice

EU Fruit Juice Directive (FJD) 2012/12/EU

EU Commission wanted to align the FJD closer to the

Codex standard for Fruit Juices (Std # 247, 2005)
http://www.codexalimentarius.org/standards/list-of-standards/e
n/?provide
=standards&orderField=fullReference&sort=asc&num1=CODEX

Limit any possible issues with WTO

Wanted to adjust Directive to take into account new
production techniques etc

Web reference for the FJD

http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2012:115:0001:0011:EN:PDF

Major changes to FJD (1)

Definitions

Fruit juice (NFC)

Fruit juice from concentrate
Concentrated fruit juice
Dried/powdered fruit juice
Addition to definitions - Water extracted fruit juice

This cover juices, which are prepared from dried fruit e.g. plums
(prunes), or materials which are too pulpy to press e.g. Acai.
Water extracted prune juice

Although it was not actually legal to call these juices, as they were
not prepared by physical means from fresh unpreserved fruit
without the addition of water!

Codex YES

Major changes to FJD (2)

Aroma

At present it is compulsory to restore the aroma of a Fruit Juice

From Concentrate (FJFC) so that it shows similar organoleptic
and chemical characteristics of an average juice

Aroma restoration to a NFC juice is only permitted from a

material recovered from the same batch of juice

The restoration of aroma to a NFC & FJFC will be optional. The

aroma shall be prepared from the same species of fruit by
physical means

This solves what has been a very contentious issue in Europe,

however, kept the horrible term average type of juice

Codex YES

Major changes to FJD (3)

Sugar
Previously the addition of sugar to a FJ was permitted: Up to 15 g/l for sugar acid correction, provided it was labelled
15 to 150 g/l provided product was labelled as sweetened
The addition of sugar to FJ, FJFC & FJC will be banned from 4/2015
However, this will mean that it will no longer be possible to make a No
Added Sugar Claim on retail packs.
Codex NO
Water
The water (to reconstitute juice concentrate) added must display appropriate
characteristics, particularly from the chemical, microbiological and organoleptic
viewpoints, in such a way as to guarantee the essential qualities of the juice.
The water for reconstitution should conform to the EU potable water
directive (98/3/EC)
Codex Yes

Major changes to FJD (4)

Tomato is now classed as a fruit rather than a vegetable.
Under the previous directive this was specifically excluded, as
some member states did not allow tomato juice to be prepared
from concentrate

Codex YES

Major changes to FJD (5)

Claims

It will no longer be possible to make a sugar free claim for fruit

juices nectars even if they contain added high intensity sweeteners
Brix values

The Brix of four products:- mango puree, passion fruit, blackcurrant

and guava juice were reduced to the values given in the codex
standard. These are typically 0.6 to 1.5 Brix lower than the values
given in the AIJN reference guides and in the 2010 revision of FJD
112, 2001

AIJN is collecting data to determine if their values or Codex are

closer to reality

Codex ?

What has been happening to juice prices in the last

few years?

Orange juice
With short crops, small inventories and strong demand from China
the price of OJC has been high and is likely to remain firm

Apple juice
Due to the pressure on the supply of apples available for processing
in China the price for AJC is likely to remain firm in the near future

Pineapple juice
The pressure on pineapple has eased, from 2009/2010 when it was
like gold dust but prices likely to remain firm

What do these features mean

9

What does this mean?

Most suppliers are honest and will supply you with what you
want

However, with the pressure on prices and juices in relatively short

supply there are likely to be more issues with extension
(adulteration) of juice

So what authenticity issues have we seen recently in

our laboratory?

Issues seen in various juices in our lab

Issues seen with orange

Isotopic analyses in direct fruit juice:

Improved detection of water addition

NFC JUICE
COMPONENTS

Water

Sugars
2

Fermentation Ethanol
18

O/16O

H/1H

18

H/1H

O/16O

CH2CH3OH

Given in AIJN COP

13

J. Agric. Food Chem. (2003) 51, 18, 5202-5206 ; J. Agric. Food Chem. (2006), Vol. 54, No. 2, 279-284
13

C/12C

Seasonal & regional effects:

similar impact on water and ethanol

14

Precipitations (San Jose):

Water addition to NFC juice

1. The best way to detect water added to NFC juice is by using
isotopic methods

2. The single parameter method 18O or D given in the AIJN COP is

not very sensitive to ground water addition and may lead to false
positive results (as shown by Costa Rica)

3. Eurofins published the original paper on this approach in 2003

4. Eurofins has working with the isotopic group of the Association
with German Food Chemist & conducted a ring test of the method
which was completely recently

Pineapple problems

Advantage of 13C SNIF-NMR of ethanol :

discrimination between CAM and C4 plants

Sugars
ethanol
C4

C3
il
m
i
S

CH2OH

l ob
g
ar

al

13 C

CH2OH

CH3
CAM

CH2OH

NEW !

CH3
17

CH3

New application of 13C SNIF-NMR to pineapple:

improved detection of C4 sugar addition

Corn (C4)
Cane (C4)

Cane sugar
addition

Pineapples (CAM)
Beet (C3)

J. Agric. Food Chem. 2010, 58, 1158011585

18

Pomegranate issues

Traditional methods
Addition of cheaper juices to pomegranate

Anthocyanin profile

(IFU 71)

Sorbitol by HPLC

(IFU 67) or electrochemical detection

Tartaric acid by HPLC

(IFU 65)

Cap-GC profile

(IFU rec 4)

Addition of sugars to apple juice

Cap-GC profile (IFU rec 4)

Normal Anthocyanin profile for pomegranate juice

Delpin-3,5-digluc
Cyan-3,5-digluc
Delpin-3-gluc
Cyn-3-gluc
Unknown

Anthocyanin profile for adulterated pomegranate

juice
Acylated cyanidins

Small peaks are pom.

Pomegranate juice plus black carrot extract

Rapid Screening methods

For years juice chemists have been on a mission to find the ultimate
method that is :Quick to apply
Cheap to utilise
Able to detect all adulterations
Tried:FT mid range Infra red spectroscopy (FT-IR)
Near Infra Red Spectroscopy (NIR)
Pyrolysis mass spectrometry (Py-MS)
All have failed in time to deliver early promise

H-NMR Screening

Work conducted by SGF in association with Bruker & independently

at Eurofins suggests that we are getting there.
Both teams have shown that from the pattern of peaks in the NMR
spectrum you can:-

Estimate, with good accuracy, the concentrations of a range of

juice components sugars, acids, sorbitol etc

Detect the presence of some foreign components in a juice

Use statistical techniques to identify abnormal juices
The technique is used by many of the national and regional
schemes within EQCS as a screening method

Typical report from this method showing abnormal

results for an orange juice blend

Statistical assessment into OJ, MJ & Blood OJ

Country of origin

NFC or FC

Sample does not fit expected

juice model
1) Could be due to adulteration
2) Or unusual properties

Conclusions (1)
1) Know the regulations of the country you are exporting to
2) Ensure any practices that you are using are legal in that country
e.g.

Use of cellulases in the EU are not permitted so you can not

use total liquefaction of the fruit to extract juice and sell it to EU
countries

Ensure any agrochemcicals that are permitted on your fruit are

approved in the importing country or allow a sufficiently large
wash out period so there are no residues.

Most countries have an action level of 10 ppb for unapproved

materials, which is not a lot.

3) Due to crop shortages and high fruit prices there have been more
issues with juice adulteration in the last two years than normal

Conclusions (2)
4) Most suppliers are honest, however, there are always a few that
take a flexible view on what is allowed

5) New methods have shown up old problems

6) Old methods have shown up old issues
7) This would suggest a higher level of testing should be employed
to ensure quality material at present

8) It takes a long time and a lot on money to build a good

reputation but this can be lost very quickly if you are
caught with adulterated or sub-standard products

Thank you for

your attention.
Any questions?
davidfruitjuice@aol.com

32