Over-regulation, not cheap fiction

Orange juice is at the center of a regulatory turf war, according to the author. (Metro Creative Services)

Orange juice doesn’t taste as good when brand-name bottles approach $7. According to a recent ABC News report, “In the U.S., a 12-ounce can of frozen orange juice concentrate cost an average of $4.27 in April, up 42 percent from the same month a year earlier, according to government data.”

Bad weather and poor harvests are hurting supply, and newly released data under the Freedom of Information Act shows that outdated federal regulations and a regulatory turf war are making the problem even worse.

Unchecked regulations have entangled the simple beverage in a pulpy web of administrative subordination. The Food and Drug Administration maintains “standards of identity” for various food and beverage products, specifying the attributes a product must have to receive a particular food label.

Orange juice standards are convoluted. The FDA pays special attention to the “Brix level” of pasteurized orange juice, which measures the fruit’s internal sugar constants. The agency considers anything below a Brix level of 10.5 percent unacceptable, forcing orange juice makers to be increasingly selective about the oranges they use.

The Florida Citrus Processors Association and Florida Citrus Mutual noted in a July 2022 petition to the FDA that “since 2005, Florida orange trees have been increasingly infected with Huanglongbing (HLB or citrus greening disease). … Experts do not expect average Brix levels to return to previous averages without addressing HLB, which remains incurable.

Producers face an increasingly difficult choice: increase cultivation costs or avoid calling their product “orange juice.”

It took the FDA more than a year to investigate the petition, and even then it responded by asking for information from interested parties rather than taking concrete action. Frustratingly, the process remains in limbo.

The Taxpayers Protection Alliance Foundation recently requested internal FDA correspondence to shed light on the pace of reform. Since 2022, FDA staff have been working on the petition and verifying that the nutrition data submitted by petitioners was accurate. The Achilles heel has been, unexpectedly, the Department of Agriculture, which must be “kept in the loop.”

When the FDA contacted the USDA and asked if there would be “any concerns” if “we removed the minimum Brix level for orange juice,” the USDA curtly responded that the policy change “would not be consistent with the Codex standard because 10 Brix is ​​the absolute minimum.”

The USDA has its own minimum Brix requirements for juices, and the FDA cannot put pressure on it.

These frustrating exchanges offer a sobering lesson for companies and their consumers. Prominent agencies like the FDA may want to make pro-consumer changes but will be thwarted by regulators lurking in the background. Meanwhile, petitions remain on the sidelines as agencies half-heartedly ask for more information.

Consumers can expect astronomical orange juice prices until regulators stop criticizing promising reforms.

Ross Marchand is a foreign researcher at Taxpayers Protection Alliance/InsideSources