Juice comes in many different flavors and provides essential nutrients that help keep people healthy. Consumers today have numerous choices when it comes to drinking juice. One of the decisions they must make is whether to buy pasteurized or unpasteurized juice.

Though illness due to juice is rare, several outbreaks of diarrheal illness due to juice have been reported in the United States in the last decade. Most outbreaks of illness due to juice have been linked to untreated or inadequately treated juice products. Most juice sold in the United States is treated. One of the most common treatments used is pasteurization.

Pathogens sometimes found in unpasteurized juices:

 

Untreated, or raw, juice has not been treated in any way to kill pathogens that may be present. This type of juice may be found in the refrigerated sections of grocery stores, health-food stores, cider mills, and farm markets. Another form of untreated juice is untreated cider. One way to make this cider safer is to heat it to at least 170 degrees F.