FAQ's
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What is the difference between a smoothie and
a juice? |
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A smoothie is made from whole chunks of fruit blended whereas
a juice is made by extracting the juice from the fruit. The result is that
a smoothie is much thicker in consistency than a juice and contains a greater
percentage of fibre which naturally occurs in fruit.
There is currently no legal definition for a smoothie and so you may find
'cheap imposter' smoothies which are mostly made from juice or have added
yogurt and or milk and very little pulped fruit, if any at all.
We believe that a true smoothie is made from 100% fruit with no additives,
no preservatives, wheat, gluten or dairy.
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What is the difference between a juice and a juice
drink? |
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A juice is made from 100% pure juice with no added water
where as a juice drink has been diluted with water. Some juice drinks can
contain as little as 5% juice, so make sure you check the labels.
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How many of the recommended '5 a day' portions of
fruit or vegetables are in The Big J® smoothies? |
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Nutritionally each 250ml serving of The Big J®
smoothies contains the equivalent of 2 pieces of fruit. The Department of
Health Guidelines recommend that you should only count any juice or smoothie
as 1 of your '5 a day'. This is to encourage consumers to eat and drink a
wide range of fruit or vegetables, rather than just drink smoothies.
Our smoothies will give you nutritionally 2 portions of fruit, as a consumer
we let you decide whether to count them as 2 or 1! Either way we know it's
a great way of having more fruit in your daily diet.
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Lots of kids drinks now claim 'No added sugar',
aren't these just as healthy? |
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The Big J® drinks have absolutely
no additives, preservatives or added sweeteners. Watch out for labels that
claim 'no added sugar', they are perceived to be healthy however they may
contain artificial sweeteners and sodium benzoate preservative (E211) which
is known to cause hyperactivity and poor concentration in some children.
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Why don't you make your smoothies fresh every
day? |
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We do make our smoothies fresh every day.
All products produced are fresh, it is a clever use of words, as to state
'made fresh every day' which implies that it is freshly made and sold the
very same day, in the same way as bread is made and sold in an in-house bakery.
The truth is that smoothies are produced and then delivered to a warehouse
and then on to a store with perhaps 75% of its shelf life remaining. It is
logistically impossible for a supermarket to stock and sell products produced,
delivered and sold within the same day.
So when you see a bottle saying 'we make our smoothies fresh every day', it
is true but the one you are drinking will probably have been produced two
weeks ago.
If you want a fresh made smoothie, you have to make it fresh.
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Is your packaging environmental friendly? |
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The Big J® selects packaging
that can be easily recycled by the majority of consumers e.g. Tetra Pak cartons,
Elopak cartons and PET recyclable bottles.
The latest 'green' packaging is called polylactic packaging; these plastics
need to be properly composted in order to degrade, they cannot simply be sent
to a typical landfill. There is currently no recycling unit for polylactic
packaging in the UK. Currently consumers will need to dispose of this type
packaging with other non recyclable waste which ends up in very expensive
landfill sites.
Our primary environmental objective is to minimise the environmental impacts
of our products throughout their entire life cycle.
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How are your products kept fresh with such a good
shelf life? |
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The Big J® smoothies are
manufactured in exactly the same way as other shorter shelf life smoothies,
often in the same factories. It is the very clever patented packaging that
we chose to use that gives the product a longer shelf life which excludes
light and oxygen from eroding the product inside. The actual freshness is
actually improved by utilising this method.
The packaging that we use i.e. Tetra Pak, Elopak and the PET bottles, all
have barriers which basically prevent light and oxygen getting to the product.
The product therefore does not deteriorate the minute it comes off the production
line.
Companies using a non barriered bottle allowing oxygen and light infiltration
have to ensure the smoothie or juice is kept constantly refrigerated, as fruit
smoothies and juices will ferment and quickly expire once exposed to light
and air.
The majority of ready to drink smoothies are flash pasteurised to give them
a longer, safer shelf life, this does not make them UHT.
Flash pasteurisation kills any bacteria that may otherwise cause the product
to spoil.
We choose to use this packaging as we export to 18 countries and supply many
different food service outlets and it is most important that the smoothies/juices
quality is not compromised.
In summary, The Big J® smoothies remain as
fresh as the day they are made and deteriorate slowly over a longer period
of time until they reach their expiry date whereas shorter shelf smoothies
which in effect are exposed to light and oxygen the day they are made and
require constant refrigeration are fermenting, possibly exploding and expiring
before their expiry date.
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Tell me more about aseptic packaging. |
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[Aseptically filled PET bottles]
Bottles made of PET (Polyethylene Terephthalate) are an ideal form of packaging
for soft drinks because they are:
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Lightweight
• Shatter resistant
• Transparent
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Resealable
• Easily recyclable
The bottles that The Big J® use are blown
into shape on the bottling site from 'pre-forms' (these look like little test-tubes)
using hot air. This means that a large number of the embryonic bottles can
be transported on one lorry.
Once the bottles are blown into their final shape they are transferred to
a state-of-the-art aseptic bottling line. Here they are washed until they
are sterile (another word for aseptic) and then rinsed with sterile water.
The bottles are then filled with one of our smoothie blends or juices. Each
blend is flash pasteurised prior to filling at a temperature of 92ºC
for 30 seconds. This is enough to kill off all microorganisms without affecting
the flavour or the nutritional content in any way. The bottle is then capped
with a clean and sterile plastic cap to complete the aseptic filling process.
You will find a lot of soft drinks in PET bottles but only quite a small percentage
of these are packaged aseptically. A lot of soft drinks contain preservatives
(including some 'fruit juices') because this is cheaper than aseptic filling.
The Big J® firmly believes that soft drinks
should be free of preservatives even if this costs us more.
[Tetra Pak aseptic packages]
| Extracted from www.tetrapak.com |
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When Tetra Pak pioneered the use of aseptic technology back in the 1960s,
it changed the liquid food industry forever. Unlike other methods of food
processing and packaging, such as canning and some bottling, aseptic technology
keeps food safe, fresh and flavourful for at least six months without refrigeration
or preservatives. It allows food to retain more colour, texture, taste and
nutrition. In addition to improved product quality, aseptic packaging offers
a variety of package shapes, consumer convenience and economies in energy
and packaging materials.
Tetra Pak's aseptic process is based on the principle of ensuring that both
food and packaging materials are free of harmful bacteria at the moment the
food is packaged. To accomplish this everything in the production chain must
be commercially sterile. That includes the food and packaging materials, of
course. But it also includes all the machinery involved as well as the environment
in which the packaging takes place.
The packaging material for carton based packages is composed of a laminate
of paper, polyethylene and, for aseptic packages, aluminium foil. This combination
of material varies to suit each separate product category, but in each case
the only material to touch the contents of the package is foodgrade polyethylene.
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What is the difference between not from concentrate
and from concentrate? |
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There is much confusion about concentrates.
Concentrates are created by evaporating a large quantity of the natural water;
the concentrated juice is then frozen and transported to the country of use.
The concentrate is then reconstituted to it original strength.
Not from concentrate juice is made from fruit that is squeezed in the country
of origin. It is then pasteurised and frozen or packed under sterile conditions
and shipped to the country of use. Upon arrival, the juice is pasteurised
again and packed.
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Is juice from concentrate less nutritious and does it contain
more sugar? |
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It is not accepted by all scientific studies that concentrates lose nutrients.
Some maintain that frozen concentrates can have higher active levels of Vitamin
C and, once reconstituted, the Vitamin C may keep its potency for longer.
This is because Vitamin C is destroyed very easily and ready to drink juice
goes through more processing than concentrate. (The argument for more nutrition
in frozen concentrates is basically the same as Birds Eye’s current
major advertising campaign about more goodness being lost in fresh peas than
in frozen ones – ice being 'nature's preservative').
The sugar content of juice is known as brix (the percentage of weight of soluble
solids i.e. sugars and acids). For example, depending on the type of orange,
freshly squeezed orange juice has an average brix of 11.8 and so does orange
juice from concentrate when water is added back in.
Therefore the sugar content cannot and does not go up simply because water
is added back to the concentrate.
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Can't find the answers you want to know?
Email us info@thebigj.com. |
