Image Number K7237-8

Fifty years ago, frozen orange juice was just a flavorless commercial flop. The only orange juice you could get back then was either squeezed from fresh oranges, mixed from a relatively tasteless concentrate, or poured from a can-and it tasted like a can!

All this at a time when lots of good Florida oranges were going to waste.

60 years ago, Louis G. MacDowell, director of research for the Florida Citrus Commission, had an idea. He suggested that adding a little single-strength fresh juice, or "cut-back," to slightly overconcentrated orange juice might restore the flavor and aroma lost during vacuum evaporation.

He took the idea to USDA researchers, the folks with the equipment and expertise to help develop the idea. Not only did it work but the vastly improved concentrate could be easily frozen. And so began the success story that's now such a familiar sight on the breakfast table-frozen concentrated orange juice.

Photo by Scott Bauer.

640 pixels wide: (k7237-8.jpg)