Juicy News -- The New Food Labels May Yield Surprising Information About Juices, Juice Drinks

How much juice is in your favorite juice drink from the supermarket?

Probably not a lot. For the first time, you can find out exactly how much by reading the government-mandated new labels now appearing on juice bottles, cans and boxes.

The numbers might surprise you. Some drinks contain only 10 percent juice. Water is usually the leading ingredient.

Hi-C Orange Drink, for instance, is 10 percent orange juice, with water listed as the first ingredient. Sweeteners are listed second, ahead of orange juice from concentrate.

Critics call the popular juice drinks little more than expensive, flavored sugar-water. One manufacturer contends that, nutritionally, the drinks measure up quite well against pure fruit juices, but a Seattle nutrition expert doubts it.

With the new labels, consumers at least have a better basis for making a choice. Besides giving juice percentages, the labels must make clear on the front that blended juices are just that.

Here's an example:

A bottled drink called Mauna Lai Island Guava, from Ocean Spray, says on the front, "Hawaiian Guava Fruit Juice Drink blended with another juice from concentrate."

But the back label tells you the drink is only 12 percent fruit juice. Water is the leading ingredient, listed first. The next three, in order, are: high fructose corn syrup, guava puree from concentrate and lemon juice from concentrate.

This might seem dismaying if you thought you were getting pure fruit juice. But the words "juice drink," "juice beverage" or "juice cocktail" on the front are clues a product is not pure juice. And Ocean Spray spokesman Skip Colcord argues that, nutritionally, it doesn't make much difference.

He notes that fortified juice drinks such as Island Guava often have as much or more vitamin C than some pure juices. Island Guava supplies 100 percent of daily vitamin C needs in an 8-ounce cup - a little less than pure, unfortified orange juice but far more than kid-popular pure apple juice.

Even with added sugar (corn syrup) Colcord says, Island Guava's calorie count - 130 calories per 8-ounce cup - is on a par with most pure fruit juices; the accompanying chart bears that out.

Without added sugar, says Colcord, some very tart juices, such as cranberry, would be undrinkable. Most sugared juice drinks have about as much sugar as naturally sweeter juices, such as orange, he says; a Food and Drug Administration official agrees.

Added water helps make extra-tart juices drinkable and is needed to reconstitute juice concentrates or thin purees, Colcord says.

Dr. Evette Hackman, director of the dietetics program at Seattle Pacific University, puts little stock in juice drinks' nutritional value. Except for the added vitamin C, she says, the diluted drinks probably lack many of the nutrients found in pure juice - or the fiber in whole fruit, her first choice.

Drunk in moderation, though, they're harmless, as long as they're part of a balanced diet, she said.

The labels don't tell you the percentage of each juice in a blended drink. But the ingredients list gives you an idea - and it could be surprising. While a drink's name may say peach, papaya or cranberry, a less-expensive juice such as apple or white grape may predominate.

Tropicana's Twister Ruby Red Cranberry Juice Beverage has more grape juice than cranberry, the ingredients list indicates.

Ocean Spray's Refreshers Citrus Peach Juice Drink lists apple juice from concentrate as the leading juice, even though it's not in the name. Citrus and peach juices come later in the list.

Apple and grape juice are sometimes stripped of their flavor compounds to make them less noticeable in blended juices, says Sharon Lindan of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a Washington, D.C.-based consumer group.

When this happens the resulting liquid is basically sugar water, noted Lindan. Manufactures can then mix the stripped juice with cranberry or another juice and label it 100 percent pure juice. She said consumers should be wary if the first ingredient listed is apple or grape juice.

Manufacturers had to start putting the new labels on juice products beginning May 8, but containers labeled before then can still be sold.

At some Seattle-area stores, juice drinks were on sale last week. Whether the revealing new labels - and consumers' potentially heightened awareness - had anything to do with it wasn't clear.

One thing is clear: Reading the label counts more than ever if you want to know what your money is buying in these drinks.

----------------------- WHAT JUICE HAS TO OFFER -----------------------

Following are selected nutrients in several bottled or canned fruit juices. Except for the cranberry juice cocktail, all are pure juice. Amount of each: 1 cup.

: : : VITAMIN : VITAMIN : FOLIC ACID (1) :

: JUICE : CALORIES : C (mg) : A (I.U.) : (micrograms) :

:------------------------------------------------------------.

: Apple juice : : : :

: : 116 : 2 : 2 : 0.0 :

:------------------------------------------------------------.

: Apricot nectar : : : :

: : 141 : 1 : 3,304 : 0.0 :

:------------------------------------------------------------.

: Cranberry juice cocktail : : :

: : 147 : 107 : NA : 0.0 :

:------------------------------------------------------------.

: Grapefruit juice : : : :

: : 93 : 72 : 18 : 26 :

:------------------------------------------------------------.

: Grape juice : : : :

: : 155 : 0 : 20 : 7 :

:------------------------------------------------------------.

: Orange juice : : : :

: : 104 : 86 : 437 : NA :

:------------------------------------------------------------.

: Papaya nectar : : : :

: : 142 : 8 : 277 : 0.0 :

:------------------------------------------------------------.

: Pear nectar : : : :

: : 149 : 3 : 1 : NA :

:------------------------------------------------------------.

: Pineapple juice : : : :

: : 139 : 27 : 12 : 58 :

:------------------------------------------------------------.

: Prune juice : : : :

: : 181 : 11 : 9 : 1 :

:------------------------------------------------------------.

(1) A B vitamin NA - Not Available

Sources: U.S. Department of Agriculture and "Food Values of Portions Commonly Used," by Jean A.T. Pennington and Helen Nichols Church.