"I took a look at the ingredients for my Tropicana orange juice, which stated that it was 100% juice, and ran into what I can only assume is that "fuzzy math" I've heard about. "100%" in most cases refers to "everything." On your ingredients, it lists "100% pure orange juice," which is good, but then it lists "and natural flavors*" with the "*" being: "Ingredients not found in regular orange juice.
What the heck is THAT? What ingredients, and how can there be ANYTHING added over "100%" of something? Are you fracturing the space-time continuum?"
I'm still awaiting Tropicana's response. It might be that they mean, "Of the juice that we put in the bottle, 100% of THAT juice is juice. But there could be other things that we included, such as pesticides and radioactive spiders, which would fall into the 'ingredient not found in regular orange juice'."
UPDATE:
On 10/14/08 I received the following email from Tropicana. In a nutshell, they can say 100% when it's not 100% because the FDA says they can. But, if I'd like 100% juice that is more 100% than the 100% juice I'd been drinking, they have an additional product that is the same 100%, minus the part over 100%.
Chris:
We're pleased to answer your questions about natural flavors in Tropicana Orange Juice From Concentrate and explain about juice labeling. We follow the FDA Code of Federal Regulations for labeling. Ingredient suppliers consider their natural flavors highly confidential and are not required by federal labeling laws to disclose every component of a flavor formula. However, we can tell you that the term "natural flavor" in an ingredient listing can only be used when a natural food, such as fruits for example, are roasted, heated or extracted to concentrate the flavoring components. Natural flavors are used to enhance the flavor of a product. The amount of flavor in a product is typically very low. Ingredients are listed on labels in descending order by weight.
Juice is still called "100% juice" despite the addition of ingredients such as natural flavorings or nutritional supplements. This is because these added ingredients do not change the amount of juice solids in the product. Accordingly, we believe the label accurately discloses the nature and composition of the product and is properly labeled. If you prefer an orange juice without natural flavors, you'll be happy to know that we also offer Tropicana Pure Premium Orange Juice located in your store's chilled juice aisle.
Also, if you would like to provide your complete mailing address, we would be happy to mail a full value coupon, good on any of our products. Thank you for your business, Chris, and we hope this information is helpful.
NAME REDACTED
Tropicana Consumer Relations
