Florida’s Natural, a big competitor of Tropicana orange juice, has made a name for itself as a collective of Florida growers who only sell OJ “not from concentrate” under that brand.
Well, stop the presses because an astute reader, Brandon R., just discovered a big change in the label of Florida’s Natural.
*MOUSE PRINT:
Why did they get rid of the big thing they were known for? The answer is on the back of the new cartons.
So it is now a blend of different types of orange juice. The ingredients label spells it out:
*MOUSE PRINT:
The customer service people at Florida’s Natural would not say what percentage of the product is reconstituted orange juice from concentrate and how much was their fresh product. But since water is the first and most predominant ingredient and that is usually three times the amount of concentrate, fresh juice could mathematically only account for roughly between 21 and 43 percent of the new product.
Even with the additional language about concentrate now on the front of the carton, and the explanation on the back, the cartons look so similar that we don’t think most purchasers will realize there was a significant change.
Shouldn’t the company have completely redesigned its carton? (Yes, if it really wanted to let shoppers know of the big change. No, if it wanted to rely on consumers’ habit of buying a product that looks the same despite the big change.)
This is huge because “America’s Test Kitchen” chose Florida Natural because you’d know all it juice was Floridian. Sigh.
If they get some of the orange juice from Mexico shouldn’t it be cheaper !
That is the brand I buy (at Publix nearby) and I don’t taste much difference between it and Tropicana. I buy it because it is a coop product. I had no idea how hard hit the crops have been (70% down?!) and also had no idea of the shift to a blend with concentrate. Would prefer 100% Florida, concentrate or not, but when it’s not on the trees there’s not much to do about it. Can’t say I’m upset about the labeling.
Bob,
It sounds crazy, but it’s true. What is happening to oranges no is similar to what happened to bananas when they moved on from Gros Michel. There’s a disease that is hitting orchards across Florida and Florida growers are considering switching to an entirely different variety of oranges in order to combat it.
Here’s an article about it from 2019:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2019/11/09/end-florida-orange-juice-lethal-disease-is-decimating-its-citrus-industry/
The brand name should be changed to: “Florida and Mexico’s Not So Natural, No Longer 100% Premium Orange Juice.”
It tastes much better now…
I see they did add that helpful yellow banner that says “Fresh From The Grove Taste.” If the shopper assumes all of those groves are “natural” to Florida, it’s on them, for not having a GPS at hand.
Florida’s Natural has provided both reconstituted “From Concentrate†as well as “Not From Concentrate†for many years. The latter wa a meant to compete head to head with Tropicana when they installed 1 million gallon aseptic tanks in the mid 1990s and in 2000.
But to be clear, their advertising campaign was NOT that Florida’s Natural only produced “not from concentrate†juice. Your opening statement is not true. They advertised that because they were a cooperative in Florida, all of their juices were produced from Florida oranges. Their slogan was “We own the land and we own the trees. “
Because of “greeningâ€, a disease which severely reduced the crop size in Florida, they and other producers including Tropicana were forced to import concentrate and single strength juice to meet the demands of their customer. FNG put the label on the carton to let the consumer know this and I believe that it was the right thing to do.
Bill…
Here is a link to Florida’s Natural website from April of this year, showing that under the name “Florida’s Natural” all five of their varieties were “not from concentrate.” That is what this story is about: changing the makeup of their namesake brand well known as a “not from concentrate” product to a mix of Mexican concentrated juice and their own.
https://web.archive.org/web/20220416100925/https://floridasnatural.com/products/orange-juices
Please show me where they said that “ ALL “ of their product was not from concentrate. Is that not what the beginning of this article states? Tropicana was the first to market “Pure Premium†“NOT from concentrateâ€. But long before Florida’s Natural was forced to succumbed to the imports from Brazil and Mexico, every other juice manufacturer in Florida was importing for many years. Lykes Pasco, based in Florida was at one time the world leader in orange juice processing and started the industry in Brazil in the 1970s. The heavy freezes in the northern part of the state in the late 80s caused the plant to eventually shut down because of a severe reduction of their local co-op supplied fruit. Imports filled the void for everyone. The Tropicana name has always implied fresh squeezed from Florida but because they process fresh squeezed from Florida and Brazil does not mean there is a quality issue. All of the Florida citrus plants are under the strict guidelines of the Florida Citrus Commission which dictates the quality. Citrus Processers process, pasteurize and package under rigid quality control practices. If the question here is that the label qualifier is not sufficient and the company should change its name because a portion of its product now comes from Brazil or Mexico, that is much different than calling Floridas Natural out for something they never claimed as stated in the opening paragraph. The claim which states the that everything they packaged and sold was marketed as “not from concentrateâ€is a false statement.
William… the above link from the Internet Archive shows you their five orange juice products under the Florida’s Natural brand name that they marketed to consumers just before the formulation change. All say “not from concentrate.” That is all they show, and those are the varieties that consumers see on supermarket shelves. This story is not about other of their products or other brands under which they market products.
They didn’t change the packaging, but they did provide the new info on the product and it’s right there on the front of the box rather than buried in fine print. The change might be disappointing to some buyers, but it seems to me that in comparison to the ways a lot of companies handle these things they’ve been pretty up front about the change and, perhaps, rather than nitpicking they should be applauded for it.
I have to agree with Jim. Their package clearly shows the produce description in moderately sized print including the country of origin change right on the main product panel. They should be applauded for their open transparency rather then trying to hide it. The company’s website has similar transparency about the change to the product. Good for them!
But Jim, why is it still called “Florida’s Natural” when it has juice from Mexico and it is not natural?
The same reason why “One-A-Day vitamins” can sell gummy vitamins that you have to take two of daily: It’s literally nothing more than their brand name.
(I’m not saying it’s right or that it isn’t misleading, but it is what it is.)
It is their brand name and it would be crazy to change it because they blend some of their juice with juice made from other countries with similar climates. All of their juice is processed and packaged by their Florida facility and all of the oranges they process into juice still comes from Florida.
In 1987, we launched the Florida’s Natural brand says the official website.
The brand name is going to stay even if the product has to have imported orange juice product.
What does “naturalâ€mean, and what makes this juice not natural?
“Mexico’s Natural” doesn’t have the same cachet…
I’m disappointed about this quality shrink ray (H/T to The Consumerist for that reference) regarding FN. It was my to-go orange juice.
How in the bleep can FN proclaim “100% premium” when it’s concentrated OJ?
At least on the package they are 1000% upfront with the people with changes which is nice.
I would certainly like to know what the percentage of the Florida and Mexico orange juice is.
Florida’s Natural has provided both reconstituted “From Concentrate†as well as “Not From Concentrate†for many years. The latter was meant to compete head to head with Tropicana when they installed 1 million gallon aseptic tanks in the mid 1990s and in 2000.
But to be clear, their advertising campaign was NOT that Florida’s Natural only produced “not from concentrate†juice. Your opening statement is not true. They advertised that because they were a cooperative in Florida, all of their juices were produced from Florida oranges. Their slogan was “We own the land and we own the trees. “
Because of “greeningâ€, a disease which severely reduced the crop size in Florida, they and other producers including Tropicana were forced to import concentrate and single strength juice to meet the demands of their customer. FNG put the label on the carton to let the consumer know this and I believe that it was the right thing to do.
It was the only thing they could do imo. If they did not do that we could easily see a mega class action lawsuit against them.
I hate orange juice.
Unfortunately, given the condition of Florida’s orange crop, this was probably inevitable. I’m not too upset about the box changes, I’m still more upset that their half gallons are down to 52oz!
In between 64 and 52, FN did sell 59 oz cartons.
It was a grocery shrink ray and it’s now a quality shrink ray.
I’m doubly upset…
We have a few people with an awful lot of knowledge about the orange juice industry posting comments here. I have a question for them.
Mr. Consumer wrote: “The customer service people at Florida’s Natural would not say what percentage of the product is reconstituted orange juice from concentrate and how much was their fresh product.”
Why wouldn’t they say?
Maybe because the percentage changes from batch to batch?
They could give a range, then.
They could say they are unable to state percentages because of variation among batches.
It’s all about communication.
I am not an orange juice industry insider, but my guess is they are worried if they disclose the percentage of Mexican juice (plus water) is over 50%, that would turn off prospective purchasers.
Yes, I would have appreciated a re-design of the carton graphics and message in order that I could make an informed decision about the product re-formulation.
I don’t think this was addressed, but if by chance everything goes back to normal in Florida, I wonder if Florida Natural will go back to their original 100% Florida oranges, or will they still use juice from Mexico as their new way of doing business.
Shame on Florida Natural for not redesigning the new “concentrated” juice carton to reflect the changes. Very misleading to the consumer. AND, there is still no change in current retail price, which should be lower since it’s a concentrate
Why not call it FLA-MEX PARTIALLY FROM CONCENTRATE ORANGE JUICE? Why did they go to Mexico for the mixture, when Simply Orange and Tropicana go to Brazil? Is it because Mexico is closer and less expensive to transport from? To continue to call it Florida’s Natural insinuates that it is from Florida alone. The price should come down proportionately as concentrated orange juice always costs less. While they are being partially above board in letting the consumer know of the change, I do not believe that it is going far enough. It is partially deceptive.
I am disappointed that Florida Natural is from concentrate at some unknown percentage. I will stop buying Florida Natural until they provide two different brands: Natural (not from concentrate) and clearly labeled (from concentrate) with natural removed. I have been buying Florida Natural for more that 15 years and feel like I have been deceived by farmer that I grew up trusting. It time to get respected Farmers back in control of the Florida Natural organization and insist on the truth!