Known supplier risks in beverages and fruit juices

Fruit juice is one of the classic targets of economically motivated adulteration: it is easy to dilute or cut with cheaper sugars and hard to tell apart by eye. Two officially documented patterns stand out, and the FDA maintains a standing import alert covering both: juice diluted or substituted with cheaper sugars and juices, and degraded or spoiled juice stock sold on as sound. Each has a public source and a concrete lab check that catches it.

These are documented industry-wide patterns from the public sources linked below, never statements about any specific company listed here. Factual pointers, not legal advice.

The documented patterns, and the control that beats each one

1
Juice diluted or substituted with cheaper sugars and juices
A juice sold as pure or single-variety is cut with water, beet or cane sugar, corn syrup, or a cheaper juice, or dosed with additives (such as hydrolyzed inulin syrup in apple juice, or citric acid in product labelled 100% lemon juice) to mimic the real thing while cutting cost. It is invisible without a specific authenticity test.
Documented by the FDA as a standing US import-control category for juices and concentrates.
Your control: Require an authenticity certificate of analysis using Stable Isotope Ratio Analysis (SIRA) and sugar-profile testing from an independent lab, not just a Brix (sugar-content) reading; SIRA detects added cane/beet sugar and water dilution that a basic sugar or taste check cannot.
FDA Import Alert 99-47 (Detention Without Physical Examination of Human Food Products That Appear to be Adulterated for Economic Gain): expressly covers juices and concentrates, and names examples including adding hydrolyzed inulin syrup to apple juice and citric acid to product labelled 100% lemon juice as economically motivated adulteration
2
Degraded or spoiled juice stock sold on as sound product
Unsold juice or concentrate from earlier seasons is stored improperly (uncovered, uncooled) for long periods until it is degraded or unfit for consumption, then blended or sold on as sound product rather than discarded.
Documented in the US via a federal criminal case.
Your control: Require the supplier's original batch/lot and production-date records tied to the harvest season, and a certificate of analysis with microbiological and quality testing on the actual shipment; a supplier that cannot document when and how a concentrate was produced and stored is a risk for exactly this degraded-stock pattern.
FDA/DOJ: a fruit-juice manufacturing company (VPI) and its former president pleaded guilty to food-safety crimes; the company stored earlier seasons' unsold grape juice concentrate for years in vats that were not properly covered or cooled, rendering it adulterated and unfit, and agreed to a $742,139 criminal forfeiture

Before any prepayment

Advance-payment fraud (fake exporter sites, compromised email threads, too-good prices) hits every category, not just beverages and fruit juices. Read the payment guide before wiring a deposit to a new counterparty, and run the company through the free checks first.

Check a supplier How to pay a new supplier safely

Browse checked suppliers

Bebidas manufacturers with open-record checks

Questions

Can juice dilution be caught by tasting or a basic sugar test?

Not reliably. Added cane or beet sugar and water dilution are designed to pass a basic sugar (Brix) or taste check; they are caught by Stable Isotope Ratio Analysis, which reads the sugar's true botanical origin. Require SIRA authenticity testing, not just Brix.

Is '100% juice' on the label a guarantee of what is inside?

No. The FDA's own economic-adulteration import alert names additives used to fake authenticity in products labelled as pure juice, such as inulin syrup in apple juice and citric acid in '100% lemon juice'. The label is the claim being faked, not the proof.

How do I avoid buying degraded or spoiled concentrate?

Require production-date and storage records tied to the harvest season plus microbiological testing on the actual lot. A documented US case involved grape concentrate stored uncovered and uncooled for years before being sold on; date and quality documentation is the check.