Imagine:Oranges and orange juice.jpg

Fifty years ago, frozen orange juice was just a flavorless commercial flop. The only orange juice you 
could get back then was either squeezed from fresh oranges, mixed from a relatively tasteless 
concentrate, or poured from a can-and it tasted like a can!
All this at a time when lots of good Florida oranges were going to waste.
Then, in 1946, Louis G. MacDowell, director of research for the Florida Citrus Commission, had and 
idea. He suggested that adding a little single-strength fresh juice, or "cut-back," to slightly 
overconcentrated orange juice might restore the flavor and aroma lost during vacuum evaporation.
He took the idea to USDA researchers, the folks with the equipment and expertise to help develop the 
idea. Not only did it work but the vastly improved concentrate could be easily frozen. And so began 
the success story that's now such a familiar sight on the breakfast table-frozen concentrated orange 
juice.

USDA photo by Scott Bauer. Image Number K7237-8.

This image is a work of a United States Department of Agriculture employee, taken or made during the course of the person's official duties. As a work of the U.S. federal government, the image is in the public domain.

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