For most months during the 2020-21 Florida citrus season, oranges did not meet the federal minimum standard of 10.5 degrees Brix for NFC OJ according to a slide shown during Florida Citrus Mutual’s recent annual meeting, the average Brix level for oranges during the season was 10.45. Brix is a measure of the sugar content of juice. Consequently, Mutual, the state-wide grower association, will lead an effort to have the federal Food and Drug Administration temporarily suspend enforcement of the minimum Brix level. The low Brix levels were not the only concern during the past citrus season. Mutual CEO Mike Sparks reported there were increased imports of Mexican OJ in 2020-21. He said Mutual will continue to monitor those imports and other trade issues “for any improprieties.”

Sparks also had good things to report about the season. He said US Department of Agriculture purchases of OJ totalled USD132 million, and that US OJ sales skyrocketed during the COVID-19 pandemic. He said there have been improvements to the federal H-2A program which allows the use of seasonal temporary workers. The vast majority of Florida citrus is harvested by H-2A workers.

Florida Legislature appropriated more than USD32 million for a variety of citrus programs in Florida. One of the programs funded by the Legislature is the Citrus Research and Field Trial (CRAFT) program. CRAFT Executive Director Kristen Carlson reported that the program has funded 106 projects in 15 Florida counties. CRAFT offers growers financial incentives to plant new trees that will be produced using specific HLB mitigation strategies. “The most important measure of success (in the CRAFT program) will be the fruit production reported by the grower,” Carlson said.  CitrusIndustry

The Spanish citrus sector is monitoring the final approval of the EU-Mercosur agreement, which is still pending its final ratification for environmental reasons. Companies, cooperatives, and agricultural organizations are worried about this change in the rules of the game between the European bloc and the bloc formed by Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, Venezuela, and Bolivia (the latter country is in the process of joining), as they fear the South American citrus will invade the European continent; especially the citrus from Brazil, the world’s leading orange producer –a fruit that accounts for 90% of Brazil’s citrus cultivation– and a very powerful country in the orange juice industry.

“The agreement would liberalize citrus juice imports into the EU, particularly of 100% squeezed juice, which could lead to the disappearance of the European juice industry, consequently unbalancing the fresh market and strangling the European citrus-producing sector,” stated the president of the Citrus Management Committee (CGC), Inmaculada Sanfeliu.

Spain transforms around 1.3 million tonnes of citrus fruit into juice each year. Brazil is the second-biggest producer of oranges in the world, with a production of up to 20 million tonnes. It exports over 1 billion euro in orange juice to the EU a year.

Sanfeliu has warned that the EU-Mercosur agreement threatens the value chain of the orange sector. He also said that these minimum prices will constitute an attack against the profitability of the Spanish sector. The Spanish citrus industry -a sector that has been affected for years by the EU trade agreements with South Africa, Egypt, Morocco, and Turkey- has not been taken into account in the negotiations. Levante-emv

Eckes-Granini and Refresco have established the new named ‘JuicyChain Foundation’. This is a non-profit organization with the purpose of making the global juice supply chain more sustainable. The foundation will manage and further develop the JuicyChain, which is an open source block-chain-based traceability and transparency platform.

The new platform, based on The New Fork’s open food chain platform, was designed to create added value for all parties involved in the juice supply chain: from growers to processors, bottlers, brand owners, retailers and consumers, say the Foundation. JuicyChain supports a move towards a significant increase in availability of sustainable juice in the marketplace. All companies in the juice industry can join and share information about sustainable juice easily and efficiently. Consumers and other stakeholders will be able to examine provenance and sustainability data by scanning a unique QR code on a finished juice product.

The New Fork has developed the platform blueprint and are the JuicyChain Foundation’s IT Provider. This block-chain-based platform brings transparency to the efforts to increase the sustainability of juice in the industry. Coert Michielsen, CPO at Refresco says: “By teaming up with others we can move faster towards a common goal of more sustainable juice supply chains and promote the uptake of sustainable juice across the supply chain.” Refresco

A new study has found that drinking beetroot juice promotes a mix of mouth bacteria associated with healthier blood vessels and brain function. The findings of the study were published in the journal ‘Redox Biology’. Beetroot – and other foods including lettuce, spinach, and celery – are rich in inorganic nitrate, and many oral bacteria play a role in turning nitrate into nitric oxide, which helps to regulate blood vessels and neurotransmission (chemical messages in the brain).

Older people tend to have lower nitric oxide production, and this is associated with poorer vascular (blood vessel) and cognitive (brain) health. In the new study, by the University of Exeter, 26 healthy older people took part in two ten-day supplementation periods: one with nitrate-rich beetroot juice and another with nitrate-free placebo juice, which they drank twice a day.

The results showed higher levels of bacteria associated with good vascular and cognitive health, and lower levels of bacteria linked to disease and inflammation. Systolic blood pressure dropped on average by five points (mmHg) after drinking the beetroot juice. “We are really excited about these findings, which have important implications for healthy ageing,” said lead author Professor Anni Vanhatalo, of the University of Exeter.

“Previous studies have compared the oral bacteria of young and older people, and healthy people compared to those with diseases, but ours is the first to test nitrate-rich diet in this way,” added Vanhatalo. “Our findings suggest that adding nitrate-rich foods to the diet – in this case via beetroot juice – for just ten days can substantially alter the oral microbiome (mix of bacteria) for the better. Maintaining this healthy oral microbiome in the long term might slow down the negative vascular and cognitive changes associated with ageing.”

The researchers ran tests to identify clusters or ‘modules’ of oral bacteria that tend to thrive together in similar conditions. A module (Prevotella-Veillonella) that has been associated with inflammation was reduced after nitrate supplementation, including a decrease of Clostridium difficile (which can infect the bowel and cause diarrhoea).

Much research has been conducted into the benefits of a healthy gut microbiome, but far less is known about the oral microbial community, which plays a crucial role in “activating” the nitrate from a vegetable-rich diet. Siasat