In the concentration process, parts of the orange responsible for good flavor are lost when water is evaporated. In 1948, U.S. patent No. 2,453,109 was issued to Florida researchers for the process to manufacture FCOJ with the addition of approximately 10 percent fresh juice to the final product. When FCOJ is prepared from fresh juice there is very little loss of nutritional value. The mechanical extractors used to obtain juice from the fruit are amazingly efficient and remove the juice from 400 to 700 oranges per minute. The processing plants have very large capacities with some plants processing more than 100,000 boxes of oranges per day.
Fruit is cleaned and washed.
Orange oil is recovered from the peel of the fruit. Juice is extracted from the fruit. Juice is screened to remove pieces of seeds and large particles of pulp. Juice is heated to inactivate the natural enzymes present in the juice. If not inactivated these enzymes cause loss of quality.