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If products labelled as juice from concentrate is just water added to concentrated juice, and concentrated juice is 100% juice with water removed, can juice from concentrate have more water added than previously removed and effectively be diluted juice (compared to the original 100% juice)? Or is there a legal requirement for producers to add the same amount of water that was removed?

Are typical "juice from concentrate" products sold in stores equivalent to 100% juice (ignoring the removal and readdition of water), or could they dilute it and still sell it?

Victor
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As you have a Canadian website in your user profile, I assume you are asking about the legal requirements in Canada.

Canada's Food and Drug Regulations state the following (emphasis mine):

B.11.133 [S]. Reconstituted (naming the fruit) Juice or (naming the fruit) Juice from Concentrate

(a) shall be fruit juice that has been prepared by the addition of water to fruit juice of the same name from which water has been removed;

(b) may contain juice of the same name, a sweetening ingredient, and natural pulp, oils and esters of the named fruit;

(c) shall conform to the standards for the named fruit juices as prescribed in this Division; and

(d) may contain, in the case of reconstituted lemon or lime juice, not more than 10 parts per million dimethylpolysiloxane.

Thus, it is not explicitly illegal to add more water to the concentrate than you removed from the original juice, as long as the resulting product would be marketable as "juice". The rules for that differ per fruit, but see for example the definition of orange juice. Mostly, constraints are placed on which compounds can be present in the product at which concentrations.

LSchoon
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  • It seems legal to add more water in Canada and the US (although the FDA requires a minimum concentration of fruit solids), but if producers overdo it, they might have a harder time selling products. Would they just add as much water (and citric acid for "100% juice from concentrate + citric acid") as possible without impacting their sales? This seems similar to how oil refineries add cheaper hydrocarbons to their product in blending tanks, as long as it stays within specification. – Victor Sep 16 '20 at 02:11
  • @Victor "would they" is impossible to answer. They cerainly *could* from a legal standpoint. – LSchoon Sep 16 '20 at 06:06
  • By "would they", I mean "do they" actually do it? Do the "100% juice from concentrate" products we buy actually have the same volume of water removed and added, or are they slightly diluted (within the constraints of the law for the US and of consumer acceptance)? Or is this impossible to know? – Victor Sep 17 '20 at 18:02
  • @Victor impossible to know without asking the producer. – LSchoon Sep 18 '20 at 06:24