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
 What’s 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-ofstandards/en/?provide=standards&orderField=fullReference&so
rt=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
2H/1H
Fermentation  Ethanol
18O/16O
2H/1H
18O/16O
CH2CH3OH
13C/12C
Given in AIJN COP
J. Agric. Food Chem. (2003) 51, 18, 5202-5206 ; J. Agric. Food Chem. (2006), Vol. 54, No. 2, 279-284
13
Seasonal & regional effects:
similar impact on water and ethanol
5
4
Authentic
pineapple
3
2
1
AIJN
guideline
18
d O water
0
-1
-2
-3
Costa Rican
fruits
-4
-5
-6
Costa Rican
juices
-7
-8
-9
-10
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
d18O 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 δ18O or δD 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
CH2OH
CH2OH
CH3
CAM
CH2OH
NEW !
CH3
17
CH3
New application of 13C SNIF-NMR to pineapple:
improved detection of C4 sugar addition
-5
Corn (C4)
Pineapple
CANE
Cane (C4)
-15
50%
30%
15%
-20
Cane sugar
addition
MAIZE
20%
10%
0%
BEET
d
13
C of ethanol CH 3 (‰)
-10
Pineapples (CAM)
-25
Spiked
samples
Beet (C3)
-30
-30
-25
-20
-15
-10
-5
d 13C of ethanol CH2 (‰ )
J. Agric. Food Chem. 2010, 58, 11580–11585
18
0
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
1H-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