Cold-Pressed
Frozen, HPP or Pasteurised: How Juice Is Really Preserved
Cold-pressed tells you how the juice came out of the vegetable. It tells you nothing about what happened next and that second step is where bottles genuinely differ. Raw juice lasts days rather than months, so every brand solves that somehow. Here are the three ways it gets done and what each one means for the bottle in your hand.
The Question Nobody Puts on the Label
Two bottles can both say cold-pressed and be entirely different products. One might have been heated. One might have been put under extreme pressure. One might have been frozen. All three are legitimate, all three are legal and only one of them is usually explained on the front of the bottle.
Knowing which is which is the single most useful thing you can learn about buying juice. If the pressing side is new to you, start with what is cold-pressed juice.
How Juice Gets to Last
| Method | What actually happens | Typical shelf life |
|---|---|---|
| Thermal pasteurisation | The juice is heated to kill microbes, then bottled | Months, stored at room temperature |
| High-pressure processing | Sealed bottles go into a chamber of cold water and are put under extreme pressure, around 87,000psi | Weeks, stored chilled |
| Freezing | The juice is frozen at the point of pressing and stays frozen until you thaw it | Months, stored frozen |
Look at the photograph at the top of this page. Same juice, three fates. The bottle on the right has been through the most and you can see it in the colour.
Thermal Pasteurisation
The oldest method and still the most common. Juice is heated, held at temperature long enough to make it microbiologically safe, then cooled and bottled. It works, it is cheap and it makes juice that can sit on an ambient shelf for months.
What it costs you is character. Heat drives off volatile aroma compounds, which is most of what you experience as freshness and it dulls colour. Vitamin C is among the least stable nutrients in any juice and is sensitive to heat, air and light. This is why long-life apple juice tastes cooked next to a fresh-pressed glass: it is cooked.
Nothing wrong with it as a product. It is simply a different category from raw juice and price usually tells you which one you are holding.
HPP and Why It Deserves Credit
High-pressure processing is the technology behind most premium chilled juice and it is genuinely clever. Sealed bottles are loaded into a steel chamber which fills with cold water and is then pressurised to somewhere around 87,000psi, several times the pressure at the deepest point of the ocean. That pressure inactivates microbes without heat and the juice comes out cold, having never been cooked.
It is worth being straight about this, because plenty of juice brands are not. HPP is not pasteurisation. Describing premium chilled juice as heat-treated is out of date and inaccurate and it holds up flavour and colour far better than heating does. If chilled juice with a few weeks of shelf life suits how you shop, HPP is a perfectly good answer.
The honest limitation is what it is for. HPP exists so juice can survive a supply chain: a journey to a depot, time in a chilled cabinet, then time in your fridge. It extends the life of the juice so the juice can go the distance. The juice is still ageing the whole way, just more slowly.
Why We Freeze Instead
Freezing takes a different approach to the same problem. Rather than treating the juice so it can last longer, it stops the clock entirely. Enzymes stall, microbes stop multiplying and oxidation slows to a crawl. The juice does nothing at all until you decide to thaw it.
Two consequences follow. Nothing has to be done to the juice, so nothing is added and nothing is treated and what you thaw is close to what came off the press. And the clock starts when you want it to rather than weeks earlier in a warehouse, which means a bottle you defrost on a Tuesday morning has not spent the previous fortnight slowly fading in a chilled cabinet.
Timing is what makes it work. Freezing preserves whatever state the juice is in, so it has to happen at the press rather than after a day in the fridge and it has to be fast. Quick freezing forms smaller ice crystals and does less damage than a slow domestic freezer does, which is why ours is flash-frozen rather than simply put in a freezer. More on that in frozen versus fresh.
The trade-off is real and worth stating. You need freezer space and you need to remember to take a bottle out the night before. That suits some households and not others. If you have never done it, how to defrost frozen juice covers the overnight method and what to do when you forget.
The Comparison in Full
| Pasteurised | HPP | Frozen | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Heat used | Yes | No | No |
| Juice treated after pressing | Yes | Yes | No |
| Ageing on the shelf | Slowed | Slowed | Paused |
| Where you store it | Cupboard | Fridge | Freezer |
| Colour and aroma held | Least | Well | Best |
| Effort from you | None | None | Thaw the night before |
| Typical price | Lowest | High | High |
None of these is a trick. They are three answers to the same awkward fact, which is that raw juice does not keep.
How to Tell Which You Are Buying
| Clue | What it usually means |
|---|---|
| Sold at room temperature | Heat-treated. Raw juice cannot sit on an ambient shelf |
| Chilled, with weeks of shelf life | Almost certainly HPP |
| Chilled, with a few days of shelf life | Genuinely raw and untreated. Drink it quickly |
| Sold frozen | Untreated, with the clock stopped at pressing |
| "Never heat-treated" on the label | True of HPP as well as frozen. It rules out heat, not treatment |
The same logic applies elsewhere in the range: ginger shots versus shop-bought and cold-pressed versus shop-bought cleanse both come down to what happened after pressing. Shelf life is the giveaway. Nothing raw and untreated lasts a month in a fridge, so a long chilled date tells you something happened after pressing even when the front of the bottle does not.
Everything We Make Is Frozen at the Press
| Range | Pick this if |
|---|---|
| Beetroot juices | You want the most-researched vegetable in the aisle |
| Green juices | You want leaves in the glass and lower sugar |
| Celery juice | You want the lowest sugar of the lot |
| Carrot juices | You want the easiest way into vegetable juice |
| Juice shots | You would rather have something small and concentrated |
| Cleanse programmes | You want a structured multi-day set |
Nothing Added, Nothing Treated
Pressed, frozen the moment it is made and delivered frozen across the UK. Browse the full cold-pressed juice range, or start here:
Frequently Asked
What is HPP juice?
Juice that has been sealed in its bottle and put under extreme cold pressure, around 87,000psi, to inactivate microbes without heat. It is the standard method for premium chilled juice and gives a chilled shelf life of a few weeks. It is not pasteurisation.
Is HPP juice still raw?
It has never been heated, so it keeps colour and flavour far better than pasteurised juice. It has still been treated after pressing, though, which is what allows the longer chilled life. Whether that counts as raw depends on how strictly you define the word.
Is frozen juice better than HPP?
They solve the same problem differently. HPP extends how long juice lasts so it can survive a shelf. Freezing pauses the juice entirely, so nothing needs to be done to it and the clock starts when you thaw it. Freezing asks more of you in return, since you need the space and some planning.
How can I tell if a juice has been treated?
Shelf life gives it away. Nothing raw and untreated lasts weeks in a fridge, so a long chilled date means something happened after pressing. Ambient juice sold at room temperature has been heated. Frozen juice has not been treated at all.
Does freezing damage juice?
Not if it is done fast and done early. Quick freezing forms small ice crystals and does little damage, while slow domestic freezing forms larger ones that affect texture. Freezing also preserves whatever state the juice is in, so it has to happen at the press rather than days later.
Why is pasteurised juice cheaper?
Because it is far easier to move and store. Ambient bottles need no chilled transport, no freezer space and no rush and they often start from concentrate rather than fresh produce. The saving is in the supply chain as much as in the juice.
The Bottom Line
Cold-pressed describes how juice leaves the vegetable. What happens after pressing is the part that decides what you actually drink. Heat makes juice shelf-stable and costs it aroma and colour. HPP inactivates microbes with pressure rather than heat and holds up well and it exists so juice can survive a supply chain. Freezing takes the other route and stops the clock, so nothing has to be added or treated and the juice waits for you instead. Read the shelf life before you read the front of the bottle. It tells you more.
More in cold-pressed juice questions, or browse everything in the cold-pressed hub.
Where to Start
Browse the full cold-pressed juice range, or go straight to the Daily Juice Box, Daily Beets or the Starter Juice & Shot Box.
Related reading
- Is juicing good for you
- How long does cold-pressed juice last
- Is shop-bought juice healthy
- Cold-pressed juice recipes
- Flash-frozen juice
- What is cold-pressed juice
- Cold-pressed juice benefits
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