Unpasteurized juice is juice that has not been heat-treated or otherwise processed to kill harmful bacteria. Most juice sold in the United States is pasteurized, meaning it’s briefly heated to a high temperature (typically above 160°F) to destroy pathogens. Unpasteurized juice skips that step entirely, leaving it in its raw state from the moment it’s pressed from fruit or vegetables.
How Pasteurization Changes Juice
Pasteurization works by exposing juice to high heat for a short time, usually around 15 seconds at temperatures above 160°F. This is enough to achieve what regulators call a “5-log reduction,” which means eliminating 99.999% of dangerous microorganisms. The juice is then cooled and bottled.
Raw juice skips this entirely. The liquid goes straight from the press into a bottle with no kill step for bacteria. Supporters of raw juice argue this preserves enzymes, vitamins, and flavor that heat can degrade. The tradeoff is a real food safety risk: any bacteria present on the original fruit or vegetable, whether from soil, animal contact, or handling, can end up in the finished product with nothing to stop it from multiplying.
What Bacteria Can Be in Raw Juice
The list of pathogens found in unpasteurized juice over the years is long. Salmonella is the primary concern in citrus juices, while E. coli O157:H7 and the parasite Cryptosporidium are the biggest threats in apple juice and cider. Documented outbreaks have also involved Shigella, botulism-causing bacteria, and multiple strains of Salmonella beyond the most common ones.
These aren’t theoretical risks. Outbreaks linked to unpasteurized juice have been tracked since the 1920s, and they continue today. The bacteria can come from contaminated fruit that fell on the ground, from wildlife near orchards, or from unsanitary processing equipment. Because juice is wet, nutrient-rich, and often slightly acidic rather than fully acidic, it can be an effective growth medium for pathogens, especially if it sits at room temperature.
Who Faces the Highest Risk
Four groups are especially vulnerable to illness from raw juice: children, older adults, pregnant women, and people with weakened immune systems (including those undergoing chemotherapy, organ transplant recipients, and people living with HIV). For these groups, a pathogen like E. coli O157:H7 can cause kidney failure, and Salmonella can lead to bloodstream infections rather than just a bad bout of food poisoning. Health agencies in both the U.S. and Canada specifically advise these populations to avoid unpasteurized juice entirely.
Healthy adults with strong immune systems can also get sick from contaminated raw juice, but they’re far more likely to recover without complications.
How to Tell if Juice Is Unpasteurized
The FDA requires a specific warning label on all packaged unpasteurized juice sold at retail. The label must include the word “WARNING” in bold capital letters, set off in a box, with this exact text: “This product has not been pasteurized and, therefore, may contain harmful bacteria that can cause serious illness in children, the elderly, and persons with weakened immune systems.”
If a bottled juice doesn’t carry that warning, it has been pasteurized or processed to an equivalent safety standard. The reverse is also true: if you see the warning, the juice is raw.
There’s one major gap in this system. Juice sold by the glass, the kind you’d get at a juice bar, farmers’ market, or apple orchard, is not required to carry the warning label. In those settings, you need to ask directly whether the juice has been pasteurized. A few clues can help: local cider from small vendors is less likely to have been pasteurized than established grocery store brands. If a product has a “best by” date only a few days out from production, it’s probably raw. And if a juice or cider is sitting on an unrefrigerated shelf, it has definitely been pasteurized, since unpasteurized juice must be kept cold.
Where Cold-Pressed and HPP Juice Fit In
Cold-pressed juice has created some confusion around the term “unpasteurized.” Many cold-pressed brands undergo a process called High Pressure Processing, or HPP, after the juice is bottled. HPP works by submerging sealed plastic bottles in water pressurized to around 85,000 PSI, roughly five times the pressure at the bottom of the Mariana Trench. This kills 99.999% of microorganisms without using the high temperatures of traditional pasteurization.
The juice does heat up slightly during HPP, reaching perhaps 77°F from a starting point of 45°F due to the physics of compression. That’s far below the 160°F+ of heat pasteurization, and the temperature drops back down immediately once pressure is released. The result is juice that meets the FDA’s safety threshold but retains more of the flavor and color profile of raw juice.
Here’s the catch: HPP is not required to appear on the label in the U.S. Some cold-pressed juice companies have faced lawsuits for labeling HPP-treated juice as “raw” or “unpasteurized,” since consumers assumed they were getting a completely unprocessed product. If a cold-pressed juice doesn’t carry the FDA’s required warning label for raw juice, it has almost certainly been treated with HPP or another pathogen reduction method. The warning label remains the most reliable indicator of truly raw, unprocessed juice.
Storing Unpasteurized Juice Safely
If you do buy unpasteurized juice, keeping it cold is the single most important thing you can do. Bacteria multiply rapidly at room temperature, so raw juice should stay refrigerated from the moment you get it until you drink it. Treat it like a perishable dairy product: don’t leave it out on the counter, and pay close attention to any “use by” date. Most unpasteurized juices have a shelf life of only a few days. Once opened, drink it promptly rather than letting it linger in the fridge.
Freezing unpasteurized juice is an option if you can’t consume it right away, though it won’t kill all pathogens. It simply slows their growth until the juice thaws.