Juicer Connections Has Been Flagged By The FDA Over Safety Violations

The Food and Drug Administration exists to protect consumers from unsafe, unsanitary, inaccurate, or otherwise societally unacceptable business practices, and it's not a huge shock that companies sometimes run afoul of their regulations. But it's rare for a company to get hit as hard as Juicer Connections, Inc., a juice importer and producer located in the greater Los Angeles area, did on April 11.

Public-facing information on Juicer Connections is relatively sparse, but it appears to be an importer with possible connections to other juice stores and companies in California. There is a record of one prior FDA violation in which the company neglected to file a Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point Plan (HACCP); the plan's lack of follow-through is a notable violation listed in the latest warning. 

The list of issues here is staggering; it wasn't just hit with one type of problem, but several ranging from appalling sanitary problems to significant issues with misbranding.

The safety issues alone are a lot. Employees at the production plant were found not to be washing their hands, the plumbing didn't have adequate floor drainage, utensils and equipment weren't being sanitized, and numerous flies were found in the production area. Possibly worst of all, hoses in the production area were found to be filled with debris and leaking directly onto the produce used for juicing — as well as ducts and pipes potentially leaking in a way that could cause contamination.

The misbranding issues may seem minor in comparison, but they shouldn't be overlooked. Two products were found to have misleading labels – The Juice Connection Liquid Gold Watermelon Juice and The Juice Connection Liquid Gold Carrot Juice – depicting numerous fruits and vegetables they don't actually contain. Both products also claim to be "pasteurized," but FDA inspections found that they were instead treated with High-Pressure Processing (a completely different food preservation process). They also don't contain nutritional facts information, don't list a percentage of vegetable or fruit juice contained therein, and fail to list the manufacturer's info.