Even apple juice can make you sick. What can you trust
anymore?

For one thing, apple juice.

It’s natural enough to feel a little wary about apple juice
now. The deadly E. coli
0157:H7 bacteria were found in juice from an Odwalla plant
in California. At least 50
people were infected there and in nearby states.

But it’s easy to feel safe drinking apple juice, say experts
with the University of
Georgia Extension Service and the Georgia Department of
Agriculture.

The Odwalla juice wasn’t pasteurized, said Extension Service
foods specialist Judy
Harrison.

"Pasteurization, which is a heat treatment, kills E.
coli and other
disease-causing microbes," Harrison said. "It also
gets rid of yeasts and molds
that could cause spoilage."

On the grocery shelf, at room temperature, juices come in
small, aseptic boxes and in
bottles and cans, she said. They come in bottles and cartons in
the refrigerator case and
in frozen concentrated form in the freezer section.

Citing the National Food Processors Association, Harrison
said all of the juices stored
at room temperature on the shelf have been heat-treated.

"All shelf-stable juices have been heat-treated,"
she said. "Those are
juices that don’t require refrigeration before opening."

Those products are safe, she said. The juice was heat-
treated, although the labels
don’t have to say that.

Frozen concentrates have also been heat-treated. So have the
juices in refrigerated
cartons or bottles that say "made from
concentrate."

"The NFPA says the vast majority of juices even in the
refrigerator case have been
heat-treated," Harrison said.

If you’re not sure about a certain product, she said, check
with the retailer. And look
for the 1-800 number on the label.

What about the juice that isn’t heat-treated?

"Some juice products contain the preservative, sodium
benzoate," Harrison
said. "That has been shown to be more effective with some
strains of E. coli than
others and at certain levels of acidity. Sodium benzoate may
limit the time E. coli can
survive in cider. But it may still survive up to two weeks.

"Pasteurization is the surest way to protect the safety
of fruit juices," she
said.

Most of the cider in north Georgia apple houses is
pasteurized, said Tommy Irvin,
commissioner of the Georgia Department of Agriculture.

"Probably 90 percent of the apple cider sold in north
Georgia comes from three big
producers that all pasteurize their juice," he said.

Most of the rest comes from three apple houses near Ellijay.
And the DOA inspects them
regularly, along with other apple houses.

Each has recently been tested for E. coli, too. And each, as
Irvin expected, tested
clean.

"They had no cattle pastures in the orchards," he
said. "And they’re
using only first-grade apples. They don’t use cull apples. So we
didn’t suspect any
problem."

Apple house inspections are vigorous.

"We inspect them routinely for sanitation," Irvin
said. "Apples are also
included in a random sampling program for pesticides as well as
routine bacteriological
analyses."

To be sure about a juice product at a Georgia roadside stand,
he said, find out if they
have a DOA license. That means they’re routinely inspected.

To be perfectly safe, though, just look for one word:
pasteurized. "A product that
has been pasteurized provides the ultimate degree of
safety," Harrison said.