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FBR March 2016

14 | MARCH 2016 | FOOD & BEVERAGE REPORTER www.fbreporter.com C old-pressed juices couldn’t be hotter. They used to be a niche product, mostly the preserve of muesli-munching health-food fanatics bent on cleansing and detoxifying body and mind with nutrient-dense nectars. But now they are slipping into the mainstream as “super-premium juices” bubbling with business opportunities and stimulating excited interest worldwide. Potent bursts of free promotion in the form of spontaneous endorsements from big-name stars such as Beyoncé and Gwyneth Paltrow who take regularly to social media to preach the benefits of these “liquid salads”, has helped boost demand and raise the profile of cold- pressed/raw juices globally. Drivers of cold-pressed juices in South Africa, as in other countries, are the global health and wellness trend and the rise of the “conscious consumer”. But is it just marketing hype, or are these raw juices really healthier than pasteurised juices made with masticators or centrifuges? Health claims for cold-pressed juices appear to be limited only by the imagination. Despite the hype, common sense and gut instinct on their own are sufficient to suggest that these juices do indeed deliver a strong health proposition by virtue of being 100% natural with no added sugars, colourants, or preservatives and extracted without heat, thus retaining most of the nutrients and live enzymes that are part of Mother Nature’s design. The benefit, as one analyst puts it, is simply that cold-pressing pushes “almost every drop ... out of the fiber, producing a drink dense with hue, tang and nutrients”. The downside is manufacturing challenges like shorter shelf life and food safety issues; raw, unpasteurised fruit / veg juices may be a nutrient goldmine, but they can also be a breeding ground for pathogens. These concerns have prompted the usage by some manufacturers of (very) expensive High Pressure Processing (HPP) technology. HPP involves submerging the bottled juices in cold water under massive pressure which eliminates pathogens and increases typical shelf life of 3-5 days to a significantly longer 30-45 days. Woolworths introduced its cold- pressed fruit and vegetable juice range in September 2015, the first South African retailer to offer a juice using the HPP process. The company says that using HPP prevents spoilage without altering the taste, colour and texture of the fruits and vegetables. The range has been catalogued to 262 of out 310 stores, Woolworths says, and customer response has been “very positive and exciting”. But just how likely is it that these premium juices will conquer South Africa the way premium coffees have done? What sets these products apart is a new way and wave of raw juicing that harks back to ancient wisdom about food as medicine, and the slow process of cold-pressing - with or without HPP. It fits perfectly with the lucrative and growing global health and wellness trend, something Stellenbosch cold- pressed juice pioneer Fiona Stander has personally experienced. Stander is owner of the aptly-named Juice Revolution, a business she started in 2012. “I didn’t choose juicing. Juicing chose me,” she says. Her husband came home in 2012 and announced he was going to do a juice cleanse. At first, she wasn’t very happy with the idea of living on fruit and veg for a week, but decided to join in and support him. A week later, Stander says, BEVERAGES Fiona Stander ... “I didn’t choose juicing. Juicing chose me ...” Drink your salad Cold-pressed juices offer time- thirsty consumers a deliciously fresh way to drench their bodies in key nutrients. And health- aware buyers are snapping up these trendy beverages. Could this be the next craft beer? F&BR investigates.

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