Florida citrus leaders praised a federal change taking effect Monday lowering the natural sugar content of processed orange juice, which they say will allow growers to get more of the state’s signature crop into the market and to advertise a healthier drink option.
U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and FDA Acting Commissioner Kyle Diamantas made the announcement in Lakeland on Friday to announce the change.
The FDA is reducing the minimum Brix standard — a measure of the fruit's natural sugar content and other dissolved solids that helps determine juice quality — from 10.5% to 10%.
“This long overdue reform will reduce our dependence on foreign imports, unleash American agriculture, and save the industry more than $60 million every year,” Kennedy said at Bonnet Springs Park, just outside of downtown Lakeland. “It strengthens American supply chains and levels the playing field for American citrus growers. It maintains the safety and quality and taste of this American product.”
According to the Department of Health and Human Services, over the past 60 years, “natural causes” have lowered Brix Standard levels in Florida oranges, requiring the industry to use “high sugar” foreign imports in juice processing to reach the minimum requirement, “hurting the U.S. economy, driving up prices and keeping the dissolved sugar content high in American orange juice.”
The size of the reduction doesn’t appear significant on the surface, but industry leaders say it will be easier for citrus growers in Florida to use more of their product and rely less on imported juice.
“We'll be able to bring more fruit to the processors, irrespective of an arbitrary sugar content that's been dictated by a federal regulation that's been in place since the '60s, so that’ll be immediate, and it will help the growers this upcoming season,” Florida Citrus Mutual executive vice president and CEO Matt Joyner said.
“I can’t quantify the number of boxes we're going to produce next season, much less how this will impact us,” Joyner continued. “But I can tell you that based on the average Brix for the season, we will be able to take everything we have to the processing plants, and this should provide that the ability to do that. And so we're very optimistic about that.”
Growers continue to struggle in Florida. The recently completed growing season yielded a little more than 5 percent more than what was produced in the historically low 2024-2025 season.
The industry that has struggled against development pressures and a decades-long battle against citrus greening disease. And while there haven’t been hurricanes over the last year, there were a couple of winter freezes in January.
U.S. Sen. Ashley Moody, R-Tampa, and U.S. Rep. Scott Franklin, R-Lakeland, introduced legislation last year calling for the reduction in the regulation.
Moody said she quickly figured out that the agency could make the change “because they're the ones that promulgated the rule in the first place.”
“I don't know why it wasn't changed previously, but I can tell you, we were speaking out about it in the last year, since Secretary Kennedy took over,” Moody said. “And as soon as we explained that it made sense in terms of nutrition or taste, and that the agency could do something without any law change, they leapt into action.”
