A 150ml glass of breakfast juice (the amount that equates to one of your five a day) can cost anything from 11p to 46p, even before you venture into the heights of freshly squeezed. According to an industry expert, “freshly squeezed refers to the proximity of the squeezing operation to bottling and the total shelf life of the product”.

orange juices – this one is the best I tried 16 different orange juices – this one is the best

Not all juices promise that they are vegan – presumably down to the waxy coating on the fruit which can be made from shellac, an insect product – so you may wish to factor that in, too. But sometimes I forget about it only to realize it’s been sitting in the back of the fridge for who knows how long. This is because orange juice oxidizes over time, which will cause microorganisms to infiltrate the juice. Of the three main kinds of orange juice available, the cheapest is “from concentrate” – juice that has been concentrated by evaporating out the water with a combination of heat and low pressure. Asda’s offering was very sharp and quite acidic, leaving behind that tingly feeling on your tongue you get when you eat too much pineapple.The flavour is nice and gentle, mild and pleasant in a way that is reminiscent of actual fresh orange juice. It’s not the same as juice you’ve squeezed for yourself, though, as it will generally have been pasteurised, too.

Juice Box, Orange Juice, 4.23oz (Pack of 44) Tropicana 100% Juice Box, Orange Juice, 4.23oz (Pack of 44)

Yale University Press) it’s also probably a function of “flavour packs” – orange extract that is added back into orange juice after processing to make up for volatile flavours which have gone missing in action.

But it’s better if you consume it within four months, because its flavor will start to deteriorate after that. Freshly squeezed orange juice has the shortest lifespan among them all, especially if it’s got pulp in it. I tasted my way through 16 of the from-concentrate and not-from-concentrate juices from the supermarket chiller cabinet to find out, with a “freshly squeezed” and a home squeezed to compare. But Sainsbury’s juice tasted the closest to eating an actual orange, with a really fresh flavour and no synthetic aftertaste. Based on my own (not scientific) experiment, a medium (200g) orange yields about 95ml of juice – plus the peels, which can be dried out on the radiator making the house smell gorgeous.

orange juice from Asda, Tesco, Morrisons I compared orange juice from Asda, Tesco, Morrisons

This will be down in part to the higher acidity of the oranges used industrially for pressing, and also the mechanical process, which extracts more from the rind than my hand squeezer. This variety of orange juice has been pasteurized, so it can kill any harmful bacteria such as salmonella or E. While we have taken care in preparing this summary and believe it to be accurate, it is not a substitute for reading the product packaging and label prior to use.

Top of the OJ tree, and the most expensive, is the “freshly pressed” or “freshly squeezed”, in a plastic bottle and with a shelf life of a couple of weeks. It’s not unpleasant, but it’s a long way from the gentle, sweet fruitiness of the juice I made at home. It was only in the 20th century that the fashion for drinking orange juice for breakfast took off, after a glut in orange production in Florida and California led to producers looking for a way to increase demand.

Morrisons 100% Fruit Smooth Orange Juice | Morrisons Morrisons 100% Fruit Smooth Orange Juice | Morrisons

Upon drinking seven glasses of orange juice, there were just two we found delicious enough to ditch Tropicana for. It’s best to drink it on the same day you squeezed the oranges, but it is still safe to drink it within two to three days.

When they’ve multiplied enough, they can cause diarrhea, stomach cramps, vomiting, and nausea when consumed.