When it comes to juice, cold-pressed is your best option. This process is slow and does not rip open the cell walls of the fruit. So what’s the difference between cold-pressed juice from a high-end juice bar compared to the cold-pressed juice found in the produce aisle of your local grocery store? Well – It’s pasteurized. A local juice bar delivers a high-quality raw unpasteurized product, as they juice in-store and bottle small batches.
Pasteurization was developed in 1864, by French chemist Louis Pasteur, and was created to kill organisms during mass production. Definitely beneficial when mass-producing different perishables, especially ones containing dairy. Back then, tuberculosis was commonly carried in milk. To kill the tuberculosis pathogen, a low-temperature, long-time (LTLT) process, also known as batch pasteurization, was developed to combat this issue. The FDA claims the effects on nutrients are small, while opponents argue that pasteurization changes foods’ flavor and damages beneficial vitamins and minerals in certain products.
Pasteurization
- Pro: Juices can have shelf lives of up to a year when you drink pasteurized cold-pressed juice.
- Con: The process depletes the phytonutrients and micronutrients in the juice, when heated up or pressurized..
Raw Juice
- Pro: You get 100% of the vitamins, minerals, enzymes, and nutrients when you drink raw cold-pressed juice.
- Con: Shelf stability is only 5-7 days, and most states require cold-pressed juice to be sold within 3 days of being made.
Your body is naturally set to detox, and should. The body is an amazing machine. Adding the extra nutrients and energy can be like adding rocket fuel to your ship, while supporting the machine at a cellular level. If you have to get a cold-pressed pasteurized juice when in a bind, HPP is the better option. HPP stands for high-pressure pasteurization, meaning no heat is used. However, even with HPP, there is still a loss of some of those vital nutrients.
You will notice the difference if you taste-tested pasteurized juice:
- Taste is compromised
- Texture can be thicker
- High water concentrated juices won’t suffer in taste or texture as much, as the actual fruit or vegetable content is low