In my research for my last blog, What is Healthy Juice? Is it Green, Is it Cold Pressed, Is it Organic?, it became clear that the food industry wanted to me to be confused about the term “cold pressed.”  Here’s what I learned.

What Is “Cold Pressed” Juice?

Cold Pressed means extracting juice using cold compression. As long as it’s not pasteurized, Cold Pressed juice provides the maximum nutrients you can get. It is considered “fresh” or “raw,” so it must be consumed within a few days.

What is “Cold-Pressed” or “Cold Pressured” Juice?

Cold-Pressed (with a hyphen) and Cold Pressured are marketing terms used by companies who use High Pressure Processing (HPP).  These terms are used to relate their products to actual healthy, fresh, cold pressed juice.

What Is High Pressure Processing (HPP)?

High Pressure Processing (HPP), or Cold Compression Technology, is a type of pasteurization that uses cold compression instead of heat. It extends the shelf life of the product, and the product is no longer considered “fresh” or “raw.” As stated in Cold-pressed vs. Centrifugal:

“Current literature is at a minimum but some articles have reported that the nutrient content is affected, especially water soluble vitamins.  Another downside of HPP is they haven’t figured out how to do it without plastic so the end product will always rest surrounded by plastic.”

In a recent lawsuit regarding High Pressure Processing, juice companies like Suja were forced to remove the word “raw.”  Not all companies have followed in their footsteps, but I hope it’s just a matter of time before they are forced to be more truthful.

For example, Starbucks brand Evolution Fresh:

• Uses the term “cold-pressed” instead of “cold pressed.”
• Does not use terms like “fresh” or “raw” on the label. Instead, they use the term “Fresh” in their brand name to fool you into thinking you’re drinking a fresh product!

Even Google and Wikipedia are Misleading

Food companies are not only using their marketing terms on their labels, but they are skewing the search results on the Internet.

If you google “cold pressed,” the top results are links related to “cold-pressed” (with a hyphen) juice.   For example, see the definition of Cold Pressed in the U.S. News article Cold-pressed Juice: Is it Worth the Hype? or the FAQs on HPP juice companies like Raw-pothecary. Even Wikipedia displays a definition of cold-pressed rather than cold pressed, and its citations are these mainstream media news articles!

You Can’t Always Trust Labels

So now that I’ve learned the truth about cold pressed juice, I at least know what to look for. I should be able to stick with only juices that are labeled “cold pressed” (without a
hyphen). However, I found that that’s not always true either.

While researching this topic, I learned that my local juice  is not being honest in this area; their HPP pasteurized juice is sold and labeled as “cold pressed.”

Los-Angeles-based JUICE SERVED HERE provides 2 options for drinking their juice: Glass or Plastic bottles. The juice in their glass bottles is raw, for maximum nutrition and health benefits. The juice in their plastic bottles is pasteurized using HPP, and has a longer shelf life, with a detriment to the nutrient content.  However, the front labels of both the glass and plastic bottles are exactly the same!   The label includes the term “Cold Pressed.”

Conclusion

Companies are lying!   The information being shared through mainstream media deceitfully relates their pasteurized products with actual raw, cold pressed juice. We must carefully choose our juices from local, trustworthy companies, and those are hard to come by these days.

More information:

• HPP: What It is and Why You Should Care
• The Truth Behind the Juice: HPP vs. non-HPP