Can you really bottle juice raw by keeping your factory clean?
Nope.
Himalayan Goji Juice: Goji Secrets They Don't Want Us to Tell You
The Myth of the "Clean Room"
We tried hard to understand how Peter Reilly, Chief Operating Officer at FreeLife, could claim their juice is raw, after we already discovered that the juice is heat sterilized.
Then we realized something else that puzzled us.
Our distributors had told us that Himalayan Goji Juice can be bottled raw and unheated for one simple reason: it's bottled under ultra-sanitary conditions.
Well, all juice bottling in the USA is always done under ultra-sanitary conditions. If not, then the FDA can cite the company and refuse the product, or even shut down the manufacturing facility.
"Ultra-sanitary conditions" does not even begin to describe the aseptic heat sterilization process.
We found that FreeLife distributors everywhere are aware that Himalayan Goji Juice is processed at an "aseptic" plant. But as we checked around, we quickly realized that no FreeLife distributor seems to understand what aseptic bottling is all about. They truly do not know that the aseptic process is one of flash heat sterilization.(see Aseptic Solutions.)
Again and again we hear people explain that aseptic means clean and sanitary - just keep the plant "super-clean" and no bacteria will get in the bottle. Then you can bottle the juice raw without any heating or pasteurization (!). And this was our distributor's selling point to us.
So our next burning question was:
Where do FreeLife sales people get the idea that aseptic processing means ultra-sanitary bottling conditions, when in fact it is a process of flash heat sterilization?
Our answer again goes straight to the top:
Audio Clip 2
The "Aseptic Clean Room"
Listen to FreeLife Chief Operations Officer Peter Reilly:
Source: leadersinaction.com - a FreeLife distributor's sales training site. From audio entitled "Manufacturing: An Interview including Dr. Mindell and
Peter Reilly, Chief Operations Officer," March 6, 2007, 2:15-2:23 in 63-minute audio.
Partial Transcription:
"We're using the best technology out there called "aseptic manufacturing technology." That's how ... we have an aseptic plant in California, it's a, it's state of the art, it's $30 million. And it's ... when you think of aseptic technology, think of like "clean room," like "computer clean room." Um, that's, you know, there's like only one plant in the United States that can do this, and we're there..." (0:51 - 1:16)
"Really what it comes down to is having the cleanest process available to make your product." (2:15 - 2:23 on 3/6/ talk: )
Multi-Level Misunderstandings
In the above audio clip, Reilly uses the words aseptic technology and brags about it. However, he never reveals that the secret behind aseptic technology is the intense heat sterilization of the juice.
Reilly seems to steer listeners towards the idea that aseptic technology amounts to little more than having a "clean room." Indeed, he concludes by stating that
"Really what it comes down to is having the cleanest process available to make your product."
We think that what it all comes down to is having the juice heat sterilized before entering the bottle.
