Fda Investigates Diluted Juice Watered-Down Apple Juice Traced To European Suppliers

The Food and Drug Administration is investigating complaints that products being sold as 100 percent apple juice were actually diluted with sugar water.

The agency announced the investigation Monday, nearly a week after the maker of Minute Maid juices sued six suppliers of apple juice concentrate in Tampa federal court, claiming they sold diluted products.

The FDA said other juice brands are also affected, but didn’t name them. Minute Maid is withdrawing all its 100 percent juice products containing apple juice from warehouses, but isn’t pulling the products from grocery store shelves because they’re safe to drink.

“It’s got a little extra sugar in it,” said Dan Schafer, spokesman for Minute Maid’s parent corporation, Coca Cola Foods in Houston.

The sugar is a form of the fructose found in all fruits, FDA Deputy Commissioner Mary Pendergast said. Not enough was added to the juice to significantly deplete its nutrient value, she said.

However, 100 percent juice products are generally more expensive than others so consumers weren’t getting what they paid for.

The FDA said U.S. apple juice sellers, who paid $10 a gallon for 100 percent concentrate only to get the equivalent of 90 percent juice, were defrauded by their juice suppliers. The price of European concentrate doubled last year after a bad apple crop.

The FDA would not say which companies it is investigating, but said this form of fructose, known as hydrolyzed inulin syrup, is made only in northern Europe.