Monday, March 15, 2021

The Juice Box

Packed lunch with Juice Box (photo from my 2015 visit
to our local school lunch hour; © 2015 mae sander)

Schools are reopening throughout our country after a year of remote classes, Most are opening safely as teachers are being vaccinated. Among the many consequences of this genuinely wonderful event is that the children's lunchboxes are once again in use. Thus, at lunch time, many children will be skillfully unwrapping the cellophane from tiny straws and skillfully poking them into the tiny foil-covered hole in their juice boxes without causing a spill. (Not all adults have mastered this skill.)

A Classic Juice Box



Juice boxes -- that is, disposable single-serving containers of juice with a straw attached -- are one version of the paper or cardboard beverage carton. They were introduced in the US in 1980. Juice boxes quickly became extremely popular here. In recent years, annual sales have been $1.5 billion, but the industry is challenged by recommendations that kids should reduce their sugar consumption. Some juice box producers have been developing little boxes of water instead of juice. It's probably not news to you that kids love the sugary juice in their boxes, though!

Disposable beverage cartons -- the precursors of the juice box -- were invented in the 1940s and 1950s. Originally, these innovative containers replaced glass milk bottles, which were commonly returned to the processing plants to be cleaned and re-used. The newly invented cartons made milk delivery cheaper, and also enabled the production and sale of ultra-pasteurized milk that did not require refrigeration. The juice box extended the capabilities of these containers, being constructed from layers of paper to keep its shape, polyethylene to provide its label, and aluminum foil to preserve the quality and purity of the contents. The invention of the tiny straw was also an important contributor to their popularity.

The question of recycling the multi-material juice boxes was a concern almost from their introduction, and remains a concern in some elementary schools, where children are encouraged to bring their lunch in reusable containers to minimize waste. Because of the issue of recycling, juice boxes were banned in the state of Maine in 1990, but reinstated a few years later when recycling technology caught up with packaging technology. Curbside recycle pickup here in Ann Arbor currently accepts juice boxes. However, nationwide almost all recycling programs are undergoing challenges, and not everything designated as recycling can actually be returned to usefulness. In some places, what goes into the recycling bin ends up in the dump. It's a complex issue but not for this blog post. 

An Adult Version of the Juice Box

Sophisticated New York Cocktails 2019 -- source

Another Juice Box

40 calories
10 grams of sugar from HFCS
10% juice (source)

Hi-C Orange Lavaburst is a popular juice-box drink. This flavor is also returning as a fountain beverage at McDonald's this month after an absence of several years (source). The fountain version of this drink at McDonalds delivers quite a bit more to drink than a single 8-ounce juice box, and thus contains even more sweetener and calories. Here is the list of ingredients: High Fructose Corn Syrup, Water, Citric Acid, Ascorbic Acid (Vitamin C), Potassium Benzoate (To Protect Taste), Modified Food Starch, Natural Flavors, Glycerol Ester of Wood Rosin, Yellow 6, Brominated Vegetable Oil, Red 40. I can’t find any fruit juice on this list at all! (source

I'm sharing this blog post with the bloggers who offer pictures of drinks for Elizabeth's weekly blog event at her blog,  Altered Book Lover. This post © 2021 mae sander.

25 comments:

  1. Thanks for the history, I sincerely couldn't remember when I saw those boxes for the first time ! We avoid them here, we mostly drink water but buy some fruit juice in glass bottles for recycling. I love my personal lunch box, a bento, that I love taking to work, ahd the thermos that allows warm drinks when it's cold and cold water when it's warm :)

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  2. Great post. I really like the adult version. LOL have a great day.

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  3. The sooner we can find a more environmentally friendly juice box the better! Maybe parents could even buy juice and fill containers for their children. The amount of disposable crap we inject into the environment every day is staggering, and juice boxes are teaching our children the wrong lessons.

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  4. I remember when juice boxes became available for kids. Fortunately my sons did not particularly like juice with their meals and preferred to buy a carton of milk at school. The school milk and juice boxes were about the same price, but the milk was a much larger serving, which is probably why they wanted it.

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  5. I only buy juice boxes when we have kiddies visiting but I usually have some leftover so we get to indulge. I am one of those adults who have not mastered the skill of the juice box, I usually end up squirting juice all over the place when I stab the straw into it. Always.
    Eva http://kitcheninspirations.wordpress.com/

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  6. I am one of those adults who never captured the idea of how to get that straw perfectly in the juice box without spilling at least 1/3 of it all over me before the straw made it in the hole. I thoroughly enjoyed this post. I always love how creative you are with these drink related posts. Thank you beyond belief for sharing your take on juice boxes with us for T this week, dear Mae. This had me laughing, too.

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  7. I just read what David wrote and I have to totally agree.

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  8. I used to love juice boxes. They were quite a treat when I was younger.
    Happy Tea Day,
    Kate

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  9. This post has me thinking of many things. First, I haven't seen these adult juice boxes. I'm also curious how modern juice box composition compare/contrast to the old milk cartons that used to come with school lunches. I'm also trying to remember if kids even got milk with their lunches in recent years. Back before the pandemic I taught high school for 36 years and I always had a lunch bunch that brought their lunch into my room to eat. Interesting post Mae. You may not have wanted to read my thoughts, sorry. Happy T day.

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  10. @Erica --
    First, the adult juice boxes seem to have been limited to a few (maybe only one) place in New York. Maybe they will spread when bars are open again.

    Second -- government regulations specify that milk must served with every subsidized school meal, which is essentially all school meals in the country, at least before the lockdowns. The details are long, but here's the link:

    https://foodbuyingguide.fns.usda.gov/Content/TablesFBG/USDA_FBG_Section5_Milk.pdf

    mae

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  11. I cannot imagine how the children will feel. Many schools here don't allow sugary drinks and reusable containers are a must. But juice in a box is highly popular here in both small and large containers. Thankfully we too can recycle them here with our refuse collection.

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  12. Those adult juice boxes look fun. I usually drink water if I'm not drinking coffee ☕☕☕. My daughter used to love an orange drink called Capri Sun, it was in a foil container with a little straw. Thanks for the what I link, I will look when I get home! Happy T, Valerie

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  13. Wow. You got me thinking, Mae!
    I never got drinks to school. Tap-water we had right at hand. Well, the "better" kids got drinks, now I remember.
    I am old, LOL!!!! I did nature good.
    Here, in Germany, too, you recycle. But you have no proof where the "goods" end. Saw a docu years ago... they went to China and simply got burnt...

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  14. Interesting post ~ Laughed at the adult version :)

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  15. Mae your post is very interesting, our son doesn't allow our GS those drinks, If he has some apple juice it is only a splash to taste.
    I like the photos of the adult ones, very funny.
    At school we had a small bottle of milk at break time and when we were older we were given tap water with our lunch.
    Happy T Day
    Jan S

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  16. I long pre-date juice boxes, and I didn't buy them when the kids were young. I remember people sometimes provided them after the kids' games. A modern marvel, aren't they lol

    Happy T Tuesday!

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  17. Interesting. I can never get those little straws in. I had always wondered about the waste with the boxes. Now I know!

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  18. You are so right that many adults can't master juice box operations! (including me, needless to say!)

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  19. The adult ones cracked me up- I'd never seen such a thing:):)
    We used to buy juice boxes for our son's lunches when he was in elementary school. Thanks for sharing and happy T day!

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  20. So interesting! The adult version made me smile ...lol 😉. Take care and wishing you a Happy T Day! Hugs, Jo x

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  21. An interesting post, thank you.

    All the best Jan

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  22. I am one of those adults! LOL Happy T Day!

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  23. I enjoyed this post a lot. A little trivia, a little history. Like Diverse and Sundry, I predate juice boxes, I don't even recall them when it was time for me to pack lunches for my daughters. I don't like sugary drinks so I pretty much ignored them I think. Recycling can be confusiong, we now have three cans and biodigradable trash bags to work with. Some days I feel like I work for the garbage company trying to sort everything.

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  24. Your post brought back memories of packing juice boxes for the girlies lunchies. We must have bought rivers of juice boxes. While cleaning out a cupboard, I found a pink lambie juice box holder which belonged to the Eldest. Now all grown up and living on her own. The lambie is now on my desk holding some pens, pencils and other tools. Happy T Day

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  25. Like several of us, I also predate the juice boxes. But I have tried one or two through the years and have always thought they were much too sweet and not my taste. In our country they recycle these type of boxes, as a lot of liquid items are packed in Tetrapacks. (larger boxes like milk, wine and fruit juice)
    What i do like is that nowadays they sell wine in these small juice boxes, and I am quite partial to the Chardonnay. Sometimes I just fancy a glass of wine, but I don't want to open a whole bottle. So those are the only juice boxes I buy.
    I must admit, I have never seen these 'adult' juice boxes, and I don't think i would buy those if they had been available here.
    But it was an informative blog post and it sparked some interesting comments.
    I'm sorry to be commenting late, but hope you had a lovely T-Day,
    Lisca

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