Suja Life 'raw' juices in lawsuit on high pressure processing (HPP) http://www.foodnavigator-usa.com/Regulation/Suja-Life-raw-juices-in-l...

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FDA: You can't call HPP-treated juice

‘fresh'... (But can you call it ‘raw’?)
By Elaine WATSON , 11-Feb-2014 3 comments
Last updated on 10-Jul-2014 at 21:51 GMT

MOST POPULAR NEWS

Trendspotting at Expo East: From 'raw'
1 coconut water to palm sugar, chickpea
pasta, oat-based entrees & cactus water
INDUSTRY VOX POP: Do natural claims
Suja: HPP "destroys pathogens while preserving crucial vitamins, enzymes and nutrients" 2 still resonate with consumers? Mamma
Chia, Runa, Saffron Road, Cargill et al
weigh in
Related tags: Cold pressed, Suja Life, BluePrint, HPP, High pressure processing, Juices, Hain
New products gallery: Cinnamon Toast
Celestial 3 Crunch turns 30, ConAgra makes snacking
Related topics: Food labeling and marketing, Trendspotter, Health & Wellness, Regulation, ‘guilt-free’, Kevita’s kombucha for the
Beverage, Healthy Foods, Prepared Foods, Fruit, vegetable, nut ingredients, Health and nutritional mainstream
ingredients, Views
Annie’s/So Delicious deals just the
4 beginning says corporate finance expert:
High pressure processing (HPP) has breathed fresh life into the US juice market. But if
CPG giants now eyeing up natural firms with
beverage firms are excited about the technology, so, it appears, are plaintiffs' attorneys, revenues of $10-25m
who are starting to take issue with the way some HPP-treated products are being marketed.
Five reasons to set up shop in the Garden
5 State (birthplace of M&Ms, Campbell
So what can and can’t you say about HPP-treated foods and RELATED NEWS:
Soup...and Bon Jovi)
beverages without getting into legal hot water? Garden of Flavor launches
first HPP juices with
With respect to the word ‘fresh’ on food labels, the law is clear*, an probiotics
FDA spokesman told FoodNavigator-USA: “No, you can't call it ‘fresh ‘if

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you put it under HPP [see regulation 21 ‘The Poster Boys of HPP!’:
CFR 101.95 click here ]." Coldpress takes smoothie
fight to Innocent

With respect to the word ‘raw’, however, Merck signs food analytics
there is no specific regulation, which is deal in western Europe

why the makers of some HPP-treated HPP shows 'greatest

promise' among modern
juices are now being targeted in a new
beverage processing
wave of lawsuits. techniques: Study

Judge tosses HPP-treated

Is ‘raw’ the next ‘natural’ in the food juice lawsuit vs Hain
litigation stakes? Celestial; says plaintiff
derailed his own case
The latest firm in the firing line is San
Diego-based Suja Life LLC, which is accused of duping shoppers into
paying over the odds for HPP-treated juices by labeling them as
"organic, raw and cold pressed', when in reality, alleges plaintiff
Rebecca Heikkila, they are "nothing more than run-of-the-mill
processed juices".

(The packaged has since been updated and now says 'organic and
cold-pressured'.)

Heikkila's complaint, filed on February 5 in California - comes hot on

the heels of a similar lawsuit filed by the same law firm (Bursor &
Fisher, P.A.) against Hain Celestial over the marketing of its BluePrint
HPP-treated juices (click here )**.

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Suja juices have a 30-day shelf-life, unlike genuinely ‘raw’ juices that “must be consumed within
PRODUCTS
days”, she adds: “This artificial extension of the lifespan of the juice products violates the
fundamental principles underlying the raw food movement, consumers’ expectations, and industry COMPLEMENTARY PROTEINS TO
standards. MAXIMIZE QUALITY PROTEIN

“A direct and unavoidable result of the use of HPP is the destruction of the enzymes, nutrients, Cleaner, Simpler Label Solutions from
probiotics, and minerals that, but for HPP, would be found in the juice products…" Kalsec®
Kalsec
Avure Technologies: HPP products should be considered
The natural vanillin reference
raw
SOLVAY AROMA PERFORMANCE

So is she right?
Battle of the Buzz: Food Fears vs. Fact in
the Digital Age
Not surprisingly, leading HPP provider Avure Technologies Inc
CRA
(which is not named in the lawsuit, and is commenting
independently as an expert on the technology, not on this lawsuit Flavored Sparkling Water Trend Report
specifically), says HPP doesn't have the destructive effects Tate & Lyle Food Systems
Suja labels used to say 'organic, raw &
cold-pressed', but now say: 'organic and claimed.
cold pressured" Cut muscle recovery time from days to
Indeed, says Errol Raghubeer, Ph.D., VP, microbiology & food hours
Arla Foods Ingredients
technology at Avure, one of the primary reasons firms use HPP rather than traditional
heat-pasteurization is precisely because key nutrients are not damaged. View All Products

He told FoodNavigator-USA: “Under the HPP conditions used for the commercial application of
HPP to juice and other food products, vitamins such as ascorbic acid, niacin and folic acid in Live Supplier Webinars
orange juice; bioactive compounds such as chlorophyll and lutein in wheat grass; phytochemicals The FoodNavigator-USA 30-Sep-2014
Natural & Clean Label Trends
such as chicoric and chlorogenic acids in Echinacea purpurea; and food enzyme systems such as
Forum
polyphenol oxidase and pectin methyl esterase, among others, are not affected.” William Reed Business Media

Asked about probiotics, he said: “Most probiotic microorganisms (strains of lactic acid bacteria) are On demand Supplier Webinars

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Suja’s website says: “Once our juice is in
its final packaging, we use Cold
Pressure/High Pressure Processing (HPP)
to preserve maximum nutrition and high
quality freshness. A high level of pressure is
applied to the bottles to destroy pathogens
while preserving crucial vitamins, enzymes
and nutrients.”
not significantly inactivated under these processing conditions. PROCURING NON-GMO INGREDIENTS – IT’S
A MATTER OF TRUST
These strains of bacteria quickly reach original population levels
Ingredion
after HPP.
Moments Matter: Motivations Behind Snack
“These are the primary microbiological determent of the shelf life and Breakfast Bar Occasions
of HPP products and it is the reason, together with the control of Almond Board of California
enzyme activity, that HPP products require refrigeration for The FoodNavigator-USA Beverage
microbiological and chemical stability and should be considered Entrepreneurs Forum
raw.” William Reed Business Media
New research behind Sustamine's sports
What will this case hinge upon?
performance benefits
Kyowa Hakko
But will such
technical All supplier webinars

details be the
key to TODAY'S HEADLINES
defending this Health Warrior chia bars CEO:
case, or will it ‘Most Americans are overfed and
undernourished'
hinge upon
whether Natural vs organic: What’s the
reasonable difference, and do shoppers care?
Some raw juice firms are now making marketing capital out of the
fact that they don’t use HPP. Marcus Antebi, CEO of Juice Press, consumers
for example, says: “The word ‘raw’ is synonymous to users like us
with a higher grade truly fresh and highly perishable product. would Optimal sweetener combinations
Therefore the word ‘raw’ [to describe HPP-treated juices] is
deceptive to me in its use.” consider for granola = Coconut sugar +
HPP-treated agave + stevia

juices to be 'raw'? Millennials want bold flavors,

convenient protein, natural,
William Dance and Matthew Kaplan, LA-based attorneys at law firm Tucker Ellis LLP, told organic, gluten-free, and non-GMO,
FoodNavigator-USA that Suja could try to argue that primary jurisdiction applies (ie. the FDA says Diamond Foods
should weigh in on this issue), but noted that at the dismissal stage the case will "most likely hinge CSPO may remain a niche unless it
upon whose definition of 'raw' seems more reasonable and whether, or how, that can be penetrates China and India, says
expert
demonstrated".
Chocolate multinationals 'enabling
They added: "At one end of the spectrum is plaintiff; her definition is based on the views espoused enslavement' on cocoa farms:
by believers in 'raw foodism'... At the other extreme is the view that raw simply means not cooked. Oxfam
By all accounts, defendant’s products fall somewhere in between; its juice blends are not cooked,
International factors 'most
but neither are they totally unprocessed."
important element' influencing US
milk prices
However, Rebecca Cross, an attorney at San Francisco-based law firm BraunHagey & Borden
LLP, argued that consumers generally understand 'raw' to mean unheated, adding: "No reasonable
consumer could think that packaged juices are not processed in any way."

The judge, she said, should take inspiration from Pelayo v. Nestle USA Inc., et al (2:13-cv-0521), in
which the court dismissed with prejudice 'natural' allegations concerning Nestle's Buitoni pastas,
"finding no reasonable consumer could think that the products sprung from ravioli trees or tortellini
bushes".

What is high pressure processing?

HPP allows products to be treated in their final packaging, with flexible containers carrying the
product into a high-pressure chamber, which is flooded with cold water and pressurized.

The pressure causes lethal damage to the cellular structure of bacteria, molds and yeasts, but
maintain colors, textures, flavors and nutrients that can be damaged by heat treatment, enabling
firms to significantly increase the shelf-life of products and retain their ‘clean-label’ credentials by
avoiding additives.

While the capex costs can be high for smaller manufacturers to buy their own HPP equipment, a
toll manufacturing infrastructure has built up whereby several companies will feed product into a
central HPP facility, said Manny Picciola, managing director and partner in L.E.K. Consulting's
Chicago office.

“I think we’re just at the tip of the iceberg in terms of the potential for this technology. It’s being

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used in everything from guacamole to deli meats, juices and

petfood. But the Holy Grail application is probably ground beef.”

Plaintiff Rebecca Heikkila, who seeks to represent a nationwide

Boulder Brands Investment Group took a
minority stake in San Diego-based juice
maker Suja Life LLC last year
Law, and False Advertising Law.
class, alleges violation of the Magnuson Moss Warranty Act,
breach of express warranty, breach of the implied warranty of
merchantability, unjust enrichment. She also seeks to represent
a sub-class of California consumers, and alleges violation of the
state’s Consumers Legal Remedies Act, its Unfair Competition

Suja told us on Monday night that it had "not been served", adding: "If and when if we are, we will
submit a comment at that time."

The case is Heikkila v Suja Life LLC (3:14-cv-00556 ) filed in the US District Court, Northern
District of California.

*Asked whether having 'fresh' in your brand name could be problematic if you make HPP-treated
juices, the FDA said if could not comment on individual brands or companies, but said: "If the use
of the term 'fresh' in a brand name suggest/implies that the food is unprocessed or unpreserved,
the requirements in 21 CFR 101.95(a) would apply."

A spokeswoman for Starbucks (which owns the Evolution Fresh brand), told us: "Our juices are
clearly labeled as being high pressured processed, and we do not market them to suggest
otherwise."

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3 COMMENTS (COMMENTS ARE NOW CLOSED)

disingenuous
It is disingenuous to refer to a HPP product to a "run of the mill" thermally processed juice.

VERY different from a chemical and flavor perspective.

Posted by R Sweeney
14 February 2014 | 19h09 REPORT ABUSE

HPP and Raw

You can't legally sell unprocessed juices through the grocery channel. You are required to do something to
the juice to eliminate the potential for harmful pathogens. HPP impacts the flavor and nutrients the least of
all commercial purification methods. Hardcore raw foodies can only legally buy their "3 day" juice directly
from a juice bar and the bottle they take home must have a warning label telling consumers that the
product is potentially dangerous to consume. HPP is the best juice you will find in the grocery store, unless
the store has its own cold pressed juice bar.
Posted by Shawn Sugarman
12 February 2014 | 18h45 REPORT ABUSE

HPP and Raw

I think the article seems to miss that Suja doesn't claim their product is raw anywhere on the package. i am
drinking one right now and cant find the word raw anywhere? It just says Organic Cold Pressured and
clearly states they use HPP? I dont understand what the lawsuit is about?
Posted by Peter
11 February 2014 | 23h15 REPORT ABUSE

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