The U.S. Food & Drug Administration is releasing the results from a sampling assignment conducted from 2022 to 2025 to test samples of domestic and imported lemon juice for economically motivated adulteration, a term used by the FDA for food fraud. Food fraud occurs, for example, when a valuable ingredient or part of a food is intentionally left out, taken out, or is substituted or when a substance is added to a food to make it appear to be better or of greater value. The FDA periodically tests food products to safeguard the integrity of the food supply and to protect consumers against food fraud.
In order to be sold as lemon juice in the United States, products must meet the FDA’s lemon juice standard of identity, which the agency established to help consumers know what they’re getting when they make purchases. This sampling assignment tested samples of domestically produced and imported lemon juice for ingredients that are inconsistent with the lemon juice standard of identity, such as added sweeteners, citric acid, excess water, or juices from non-lemon sources.
The agency conducted multiple analytical tests to determine whether the samples were violative. Of the 195 samples collected and tested by the agency, seven of the samples of the imported products were violative and none of the domestic products were violative. These findings represent a 4.5% violation rate among the imported samples and a 3.6% violation rate across all samples. All shipments related to violative samples were refused entry into the U.S. Additionally, the associated firms and their violative products were placed on Import Alert 99-47, “Detention Without Physical Examination of Human Food Products That Appear to be Adulterated for Economic Gain.” To have its products admitted into the United States, a company listed on the import alert must provide evidence to the FDA that it has fixed the violation—such as third-party laboratory test results—showing that its products meet the agency’s standard of identity for lemon juice.
The FDA remains committed to conducting surveillance and taking appropriate regulatory actions on violative foods and firms to protect consumers from food fraud and maintain their trust in food labels.