Grocery 101: Reading Juice Labels

During a recent shopping excursion, I realized how crazy juice labeling is. You have to look carefully. If not, you will find yourself going home with something you did not intend to buy.

Check out the photo of the three types of Grape products. I was looking for "Grape Juice", but came across:

1. Grape Drink

2. 100% Juice - Grape

3. Grape Juice

First off, anything that contains less than 10% of the fruit juice the product is supposed to be representing can't be called "Juice". It must be labeled as "Drink". This includes the Grape Drink in the picture, Sunny Delight, Hawaiian Punch, etc. They are typically made with sugar, high fructose corn syrup, a splash of juice and the rest artificial or natural flavors. Bottom line: Don't buy "Drinks". They are junk.

Second, it's great that the product is 100% juice. The only problem is that I want Grape Juice. Notice on the second bottle that "Grape" comes after "Juice". That's because the product is 100% juice, just not 100% Grape Juice. They use other juices, most commonly apple, to make the product less expensive (grapes are more expensive than apples). It's nice that the product is 100% Juice, but I want Grape Juice, so let's move on.

The third bottle was what I was looking for: Grape Juice. I double-checked the ingredients list just to make sure and it stated simply and eloquently: "Filtered Water, Grape Juice from Concentrate, Ascorbic Acid, Citric Acid (the latter two ingredients are natural preservatives)." Success!

Notice that even though I found the version of Grape Juice I was looking for, I still read the ingredients. Manufacturers know all of the labeling loopholes. For example, while the front panel says "Grape Juice", they could have very easily added fine print for "with other natural flavors" or "and other fruit juices".

By the way, "from concentrate" is just that: Whatever the juice, it is processed into a concentrated form and put into cold storage until the manufacturer is ready to bottle it. At which time, the fruit concentrate is mixed with the appropriate amount of water, packaged and sent off to your local grocery store.

One more tip on "Light" juices. The term "Light" means that manufacturers have either diluted the concentrate with more water to reduce the calories per serving, or they use an artificial sweetener (usually Splenda).

My recommendation is not to bother with "Light". Avoid watered down juice or artificial sweetener, buy the full version and simply moderate your consumption!