Fruit juice industry in India

Fruits are an essential part of a healthy lifestyle. It provided vitamins, minerals and sugars needed for the body. Most of the food is consumed in cooked form from rice to pulses to vegetables. The process of cooking helps in breaking the complex organic structures like cellulose. This aids in digestion, making the whole process of consuming complex forms of organic compounds much easier. Human beings are designed to be omnivores which feed on both plant and animal substance for their sustenance. The biggest drawback of cooking food comes when complex vitamins, sugars and proteins lose their properties while being subjected to heat. It is what makes the consumption of raw fruits or extracts or fruit juice essential. Since the fruits are bright in colours and have antioxidants in various forms, the consumption of fruits is important for a balanced diet. The availability of fruits are seasonal and are heavily skewed against countries with temperate climates where there is less sunlight. Some fruits like apples do grow in colder climates but the vast majority of the sweet fleshy fruit is grown in a tropical climate with abundant sunlight all over the year.

Most parts of the pre-industrial time fruits were either consumed raw, dried or in the salted and pickled form. Juices or pulps were also consumed during the season of the harvesting. Since there was no way to preserve fruits or their flavour and transport them, most of the fruit was consumed regionally by the masses. The rise of industrial juice production along with the use of preservatives and better storing/transporting facility made the juices a part of daily use, at least in the industrialised West. Better access to nutritional fruit juice had a big positive impact on the health of the masses. Many seasonal fruits can now be stored in the form of juice to be consumed during the offseason. This reduced the prices of perishable fruits in the offseason and reduced the price gut during harvesting season. Today the fruit and vegetable juice industry is worth billions of dollars and are household names in many parts of the world. It is projected to grow around $173 Billion, growing at a CAGR of 3.17% by 2024. The rise of the juice industry is due to the rise in income of developing countries and the shift toward healthier lifestyles of the general populace.

Is fruit juice better than fruit?

Juices are not a replacement for fruit. It is more of an added convenience along with the benefits of the fruit. Fruit contains fibre essential to the body which sometimes fruit juice lacks. Modern juices have fruit pulp extracts added to them to regain fibres lost during the juicing process. It helps in giving the fruits juice a pulpy chewy experience of eating fruit. Since most of the time availability of the fruits are not guaranteed, fruit juice occupies the shelves during the offseason. Fruit juice has the added benefit of preservatives added to it. It ensures the longevity of the product which fruits generally lack even when stored in the fridge. Consistency in the quality is also one thing that favours the fruit juice as it is industrially produced, giving it a consistent taste all the time. Most of the time juices are cheaper than actual fruit due to the scale of their operation and fewer chances of spoilage, making it widely consumed by the masses in one form or the other.

Added sugar in the fruits juice

All fruits contain natural sugars giving them a sweet taste loved by all. During the pasteurisation process for preservation or general processing, fruit juices can lose a small part of their natural sweetness. Juices are added with additional sugar to replace or to increase the sweetness lost, making it much more desirable for the consumers. It had led to an increase in sugary drinks masquerading as fruit juice leading to a rise in diabetics and obesity. New legislation in controlling the amount of sugar is being introduced around the world to push people into healthier juice with less sugar. Now, most juices are mandated to follow health ministries guidelines. Many juices are marketed as no sugar, no preservatives drinks, which are widely accepted and loved. The future of fruit juices are healthy, so is the future perspective of the fruit juice industry.