After 60 historic years stop to orange sodas without orange and more fruit in sodas. Starting today, March 6, the obligation to guarantee a minimum percentage of 20% of juice in soft drinks produced in Italy and sold under the name of orange juice or in any case with denominations that refer to that type of citrus fruit has taken effect. This is foreseen by the entry into force of the provisions contained in law 161 of 30 October 2014 which take effect precisely from 6 March, twelve months after the successful completion of the procedure for notifying the European Commission of the measure concerning juice-based beverages fruit.
"It is an extraordinary result for farmers and consumers young and old", comments Coldiretti which launched a national day of mobilization from Rome to Reggio Calabria up to Catania to explain how to read the new labels "and celebrate - explains a press release - the 'most consumed citrus fruit in Italy with maxispressed, orange tutors to recognize the different varieties, nutritionists and oranges for everyone'.
The increase in the orange juice content - underlines Coldiretti - modifies a 60 standard after 1958 years. Some studies have highlighted that a drink with 20% orange juice helps to meet the daily requirement of vitamin C recommended by the various scientific academies and its intake conveys a varied mix of phytochemicals that can positively affect the defenses of the immune system. "With the new standard - specifies Coldiretti - we also contribute to offering the right recognition to higher quality drinks by reducing the use of artificial flavors and above all sugar, the high concentration of which could be used to make up for the lower quality of the products ”.
But what exactly changes now? The labels of orange sodas must report the effective presence of a minimum juice content of 20% but, in the initial period, even drinks with a lower juice content may continue to circulate since the law provides that drinks produced before the date of start of the effectiveness of the provisions can be marketed until stocks last.
The new law - says Coldiretti - "will save over ten thousand hectares of Italian citrus groves with an area equivalent to about twenty thousand football fields, located above all in regions such as Sicily and Calabria". The increase in the percentage of the minimum fruit content to 20% corresponds in fact, according to evaluations by the agricultural association, to the use of 200 million kilos more of oranges per year with effects also from the point of view of the landscape in a situation in in which one out of three orange trees (31%) has disappeared in Italy in the last fifteen years, while producers' incomes have plummeted. To date, for each orange soda sold on the shelves at 1,3 euros per liter, farmers are paid only 3 cents for the oranges contained "totally insufficient to cover the costs of production and harvesting" continues the association.
“The next step towards transparency is to make it mandatory the indication of origin on the label of the fruit used in drinks to prevent passing off concentrated juices imported from distant countries as Made in Italy”, underlined the president of Coldiretti Roberto Moncalvo.
