Citrus Hill facts for kids

Citrus Hill was a brand of orange juice that started in 1982. It was created by a big company called Procter & Gamble (P&G) in the United States. Later, the brand also sold other kinds of fruit juices and drinks.

The Story of Citrus Hill Juice

How Citrus Hill Began

Procter & Gamble wanted to sell juice. So, they bought a company in Florida called Ben Hill Griffin Inc. After this, P&G launched the Citrus Hill brand. They started selling their juice products all across the country.

This put P&G into the busy orange juice market. Other big brands like Minute Maid and Tropicana Products were already very popular. P&G tried to make Citrus Hill seem special. They marketed it as a high-quality, "premium" juice.

However, this idea didn't work very well. In the 1980s, most orange juice was made from concentrate. This meant most brands were pretty similar in quality. People usually chose juice based on its price or how good a deal it seemed.

In 1986, Citrus Hill did something new. They introduced the first orange juice with added calcium. But most customers didn't seem to care much about this new feature.

Challenges and Changes

For a long time, Citrus Hill stayed in third place in the market. It was always behind Minute Maid and Tropicana. P&G tried hard to make the brand more popular.

In 1990, they changed the name of their orange juice. It became "Citrus Hill Fresh Select." The word "Fresh" was made very big and bold on the packaging. There was also a small note that said "Fresh from Concentrate."

The "Fresh" Problem

In June 1990, a government official stepped in. David A. Kessler, who was in charge of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), spoke up. He said that calling the juice "fresh" was misleading. He explained that it went against rules made in 1963 for processed orange juice. P&G disagreed with the FDA's view.

The FDA and Procter & Gamble talked back and forth. Citrus Hill kept using the same "Fresh" marketing. But their talks broke down on April 24, 1991. On that very day, the FDA took action. They seized 12,000 gallons of Fresh Select orange juice. This happened at a warehouse in Minneapolis. The FDA said the juice was wrongly labeled. They claimed that P&G's "fresh" claims were false advertising.

P&G eventually agreed to stop using the word "fresh" for their juice. But by then, the news of the seizure was everywhere. Television news showed footage of the juice being taken away. Newspapers printed pictures of it. This made people lose trust in the Citrus Hill brand. Sales dropped very quickly.

The End of Citrus Hill

Over time, the Citrus Hill brand slowly disappeared. P&G tried to find another company to buy the brand, but they were not successful.

In 1994, PepsiCo licensed the Citrus Hill brand. They used it for a line of fruit-flavored drinks sold at soda fountains. However, this also ended. In 1998, PepsiCo bought Tropicana. Then, they changed the Citrus Hill fountain drinks to the Tropicana brand. Today, the old Citrus Hill juice factory in Florida is owned by a company called Cargill.