I was shopping in WalMart this weekend and the list included some frozen apple juice concentrate that we reconsitute with water for our daughter to drink. Since she consumes a lot of liquids each day we dilute more than the directions suggest.
I was wrapping up my shopping in the frozen food aisle and it was time to pick up juice. Usually we buy a mix of Welch’s White Grape, White Grape with Peach and some
store brand of apple juice. In this case, the store brand of apple juice was WalMart’s “Great Value”. Ever the curious shopper I spied some printing on the can’s end. To my amazement it stated “concentrate made in China“.
What? What do the Chinese know about apple juice? Apparently enough to have been
dumping it here at low cost with assistance from some distributors.
No markings like that on the Welch’s cans. Their Web site states:
“Welch’s is the world’s leading producer of delicious and distinctive
tasting juices, jams and jellies made from Concord and Niagara grapes
grown only in the United States and part of Canada.”
I guess living near an orchard (specifically, Mann Orchards – 65 Pleasant Valley Street, Methuen, MA 01844, Phone: (978) 683-0361, Open: 7 days year round 8-6) as a young person and learning lately that:
“Apples are grown in every state in the continental United States, and are grown commercially in 36 states. Top-producing states include Washington, New York, Michigan, California, Pennsylvania and Virginia.”(Source)
I had the impression that plenty of apples were grown in the States to supply us for eating, cooking, and juice. With some disgust I put the Great Value brand back in to the freezer and picked up the Seneca brand (now under license to another company, not Seneca). Checking the can’s end it is stamped with “concentrate made in China/Argentina“. So, I put that can back and headed over to the bottled juice aisle. Here it get’s tougher to know where the juice is sourced. The ingredients are listed but, as I learned previously the apple juice
concentrate that is listed could be from anywhere.
So, I take a guess and buy Mott’s brand who state on their Web site: “We pick fresh, whole apples that meet the highest standards of quality and flavor for use in our products. We purchase our apples from over 400 apple growers throughout the United States and Canada, who grow apples for apple juices and sauces.”
I presume this is North American apple juice. But, who really knows the origin of juice?