Keep it cool

The refrigerated section for in supermarkets has been expanding for years. The ever-growing range of chilled food products is gradually edging out the ambient products.

At first glance the wide choice of fresh food in my local supermarket today makes me happy, but when I take a closer look I see a large number of products that don’t actually have to be refrigerated at all. The appearance of freshness can be deceiving.

One good example that has already attracted plenty of attention are the distinct blue cartons of CoolBest juice. ‘We keep it cool, you get the best’ is the marketing slogan for these tropical fruit juices. However, these juices – just like the ones in the ambient section of the store – have been heat-treated, which means that they have a long shelf life without needing to be kept refrigerated. They are only displayed in the chilled section to give you the impression that you’re buying fresh juice. That’s misleading, because not only have they been heat-treated but in the worst-case scenario they might even be made from concentrates. And CoolBest is not alone. Nowadays, the choice of heat-treated juices is wider than the number of truly fresh juices on offer. 

In fresh juice, the pulp and clear juice separate in the bottle. This is caused by enzymes, but they don’t survive the heating process so treated juice will never separate. A growing number of people know this and, what’s more, their knowledge is expanding all the time. Consumers are paying more and more attention to whether what they buy from the chilled cabinet truly is fresh. No one likes to feel that they’re being conned!

Dennis Favier is a professional food designer and creative director at innovation company TOP bv which translates technological innovations into interesting applications.