Who started National Orange Juice Day?

No founder or sponsoring organization is on record. HathiTrust's full text index reaches Chase's Calendar of Events volumes published from 1961 through 2007, and the day is named in none of them.

Why did the FDA change the orange juice standard in 2026?

Florida petitioners told the agency that citrus greening and severe weather had reduced the average soluble solids content of the state's oranges. The FDA made both changes, lowering the minimum from 10.5 to 10 percent and raising the mandarin allowance from 10 to 15 percent.

National Orange Juice Day

Next celebratedTuesday, May 4, 2027

National Orange Juice Day turns a glass that gets poured without much thought into something worth a second look. Squeeze your own if you have the oranges, and give the carton a closer read if you do not.

See how to celebrate

Countdown to the day

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Last updated September 7, 2026 · by the Holiday Calendar TeamHave an update or spot an error?

YEARLY DATEMay 4

OBSERVED INUnited States

CATEGORYFood

SUBCATEGORYSoft Drinks

ORIGIN

Community Origin

FOUNDING ENTITY

Not documented

FIRST OBSERVED

Not documented

HOW THE HOLIDAY CAME TO BE

A Florida state agency marked the day with a mural.

No founder, sponsoring organization or establishing record for this day was located, and the Federal Register holds no document under its name. What the day does have is institutional pickup. On May 4, 2023 the Florida Department of Citrus, an executive agency of the Florida government, unveiled a hand painted citrus mural at the Florida Welcome Center on I-95 in Yulee.

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INTRO

Federal law defines orange juice twelve different ways

On August 19, 2026, the federal standard behind a carton of not from concentrate orange juice loosened. The Food and Drug Administration lowered the minimum orange juice soluble solids in pasteurized orange juice from 10.5 to 10 percent and raised the ceiling on mandarin juice from 10 to 15 percent by volume. Two citrus industry petitions had asked for the changes.

Orange juice is not simply a drink in American law. It is a regulated category, and Title 21 of the Code of Federal Regulations gives it twelve separate standards of identity. Lemon juice, grapefruit juice, pineapple juice and canned prune juice get one apiece.

The reason the rule moved is written into the petition the agency quotes. Citrus greening and severe weather, the petitioners told the FDA, had reduced the average soluble solids content of Florida's oranges. The fruit changed, and the definition followed.

DEALS & OFFERS

2026 ran without a deal

No tracked offers this year. Here’s who has celebrated in past years.

No tracked deals for 2026

National Orange Juice Day ran on May 4 without a tracked deal. Browse past offers from previous years.

1 brand has run a deal

Farmer Boys

See past offers

ORIGINS

Orange Juice Day history

INTRODUCTION

The problem that produced modern orange juice started as a ration problem. American soldiers in the early 1940s were issued lemon crystals, and by the Smithsonian's account too many of the crystals went uneaten because of the unpleasant taste.

Concentrating juice was already possible. Making the concentrate taste like juice was the hard part, and three scientists working in Florida solved it by putting some of the juice back.

CHAPTER 01

The patent that went to the government

Louis G. MacDowell of Lakeland and Edwin L. Moore and Cedric D. Atkins of Winter Haven filed their application on August 7, 1945. Patent 2,453,109 issued on November 9, 1948, and its first page names the three men as assignors to the United States of America as represented by the Secretary of Agriculture. The method they described was simple: add a measure of fresh, single strength juice back into a strong concentrate.

USDA's own statisticians credit the transfer of that patent with helping make the frozen food industry commercially viable. Florida had three orange juice concentrate plants in 1948 and ten the following year.

CHAPTER 02

How Florida stopped selling fruit

Before the concentrate, the state's orange crop was something you ate. In the 1931-32 season Florida processed just 2 percent of its orange crop and sold the rest fresh. By the 1970s the processed share was above 90 percent.

The money followed the fruit. Florida's orange industry was worth $15.7 million in 1935. By 1950 the figure was $140 million.

The day that marks all of this arrived without a signature. Its name appears in no scanned volume of Chase's Calendar of Events in HathiTrust's full text index, a run that reaches editions published from 1961 through 2007.

TIMELINE

Timeline

The cut-back application is filed

Three scientists in Florida applied on August 7 for a way to make concentrate taste like fresh juice.

The patent goes to the government

Patent 2,453,109 issued on November 9 to three inventors who assigned it to the Secretary of Agriculture.

Orange juice gets its rulebook

The FDA published the orange juice standards of identity the category still runs on, at 42 FR 14433 on March 15.

Citrus greening reaches the groves

The bacterial disease was first detected in Florida's commercial citrus groves, and it has no known cure.

FDA proposes striking seven

The agency proposed revoking 23 food standards of identity on July 17, seven of them orange juice standards.

The definition loosens

The amended standard for pasteurized orange juice took effect on August 19.

GOOD TO KNOW

Surprising facts about National Orange Juice Day

The regulation sets the type size on the carton

Under 21 CFR 146.145, the words "from concentrate" must be printed in letters not less than one half the height of the letters in the words "orange juice". The label is not a design choice.

Florida made the juice official before the fruit

Florida Statutes section 15.032 adopts the juice of mature Citrus sinensis oranges as the official beverage of the state. The orange itself was not designated the official state fruit until chapter 2005-38 was approved on May 20, 2005.

One hybrid is named in the rule by its selection number

Orange juice can only come from Citrus sinensis or from one named hybrid, and the regulation spells that hybrid out as "Ambersweet", giving its parentage as a cross of three citrus species and naming its USDA selection number.

Frozen concentrate may legally carry other citrus

In the unconcentrated blend behind a can of frozen concentrated orange juice, mandarin juice may not exceed 10 percent and sour orange juice may not exceed 5 percent. Orange essence may be added back, and the rule requires it to have come from orange juice.

Reconstituted juice has to clear the higher bar

Orange juice from concentrate must finish at not less than 11.8 percent orange juice soluble solids. Since August 2026 the pasteurized class, the one sold as not from concentrate, has had to clear only 10 percent.

WHY THIS DAY MATTERS

Why National Orange Juice Day Matters

Crop

The disease has no known cure, and the acreage keeps falling.

USDA's Economic Research Service reckons natural disasters and disease cut Florida orange production an estimated 92 percent since 2003/04. Citrus greening kills the trees and there is no known cure. Bearing acreage has come out of the ground at an average of 3 percent a year over the same span.

Rules

The standard survived a question about its own existence

Alongside the change it made, the FDA asked whether the minimum should be dropped entirely and whether the pasteurized orange juice standard should be revoked. It records that all the comments it received on those questions opposed both. Commenters argued that shoppers expect a certain quality in not from concentrate juice, and that without a federal standard states would impose differing or conflicting ones.

Growers

A tax on every box funds the agency that marked the day

The Florida Department of Citrus is an executive agency of the Florida government, charged with the marketing, research and regulation of the state's citrus industry. Its activities are funded by a tax paid by growers on each box of citrus that moves through commercial channels, and it is governed by an eleven member Florida Citrus Commission appointed by the Governor.

We are discontinuing our frozen products and exiting the frozen can category in response to shifting consumer preferences.

A Coca-Cola spokespersonQuoted by NBC News in February 2026, on ending Minute Maid frozen orange juice concentrate cans in the United States and Canada

Our goal is for visitors to step into a space that makes them feel as if they're in the heart of a Florida Citrus grove.

Shannon SheppExecutive director of the Florida Department of Citrus, on the mural unveiled for the day in 2023

GOOD TO KNOW

National Orange Juice Day Around the World

Brazil

USDA forecasts Brazil to produce 1,032,000 metric tons of orange juice in 2025/26 and to ship 973,000 of the 1,273,000 metric tons traded worldwide. All figures are at 65 degrees Brix.

United States

The same forecast puts American production at 72,000 metric tons and American imports at 390,000, more than five times what the country makes for itself.

European Union

USDA forecasts the bloc to bring in 360,000 metric tons in 2025/26, the second largest import line in the circular's table behind the United States.

China

China shows the largest projected import growth, up 15,000 metric tons to 64,000, though USDA notes that it stays below the five year average.

MYTH VS FACT

Common Misconceptions

The myth

Not from concentrate means nothing in the carton was ever concentrated.

The truth

It is the name of a regulatory class, not a promise about every drop. Under 21 CFR 146.140, pasteurized orange juice may take concentrated orange juice ingredients up to one fourth of the total orange juice solids in the finished product.

The myth

Florida grows most of America's oranges.

The truth

Not any more. USDA's July 2026 forecast puts Florida's 2025-2026 all orange crop at 12.9 million boxes and California's at 49.5 million.

GET INVOLVED

How to Observe National Orange Juice Day

Squeeze a few oranges yourself

The federal standard starts from the plainest possible version of the drink: the unfermented juice of mature Citrus sinensis oranges, with the seeds and the excess pulp taken out. A hand press and a bag of oranges get you there.

TASTE

Taste the two classes side by side

Buy one carton labelled orange juice from concentrate and one labelled pasteurized orange juice, and pour them together. You are comparing two different federal standards, not two brands.

READ

Read the standard itself

Section 146.135 of Title 21 runs to two short paragraphs and settles what may be called orange juice in the United States. It is short enough to read over breakfast.

STOP

Stop at a Florida welcome center

The state's welcome centers pour free samples of Florida orange juice and grapefruit juice for visitors. The one at Yulee sits on I-95 north of Jacksonville.

Follow this season's forecast

USDA's Florida field office publishes a citrus forecast through the growing season, by type and by the box. It is the clearest running measure of what is left in the groves.

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