How Long Does Fresh Juice Last In A Mason Jar
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A popular way to maintain a healthy lifestyle is to drink raw juice. It’s always best to drink homemade juice right away. If you’re wondering how long does fresh juice last in a mason jar read this post to find out!
But if you need to make it ahead of time there are ways to increase the juice’s shelf life. For instance by storing it in a mason jar or other type of airtight container you can slow down the oxidization process, prevent nutrient loss and slow bacterial growth.
Vegetable juice starts to lose its health benefits and nutritional value as soon as it’s pressed.
The best storage method to increase the shelf life of homemade juice is to store it in a mason jar in the refrigerator.
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Table of Contents
- How Long Does Juice Last In A Mason Jar?
- How Long Does Homemade Juice Last With Each Type of Juicer?
- Juice Recipes to Try At Home
- Can You Store Fresh Juice In Mason Jars?
- How Long Does Homemade Juice Last In The Fridge?
- How Long Does Fresh Bottled Juice Last?
- How Long Does Celery Juice Last In A Mason Jar?
- How To Make Fresh Juice Last Longer
- A great way to increase your juice’s shelf life is to freeze it!
How Long Does Juice Last In A Mason Jar?
In my personal experience fresh juice will last for up to two days in a mason jar if you keep it in the refrigerator. Under less than ideal conditions juice will only last 24 hours like if you use a plastic container, thermal container or milk bottle.
There are many types of mason jars you can buy these days. All storage containers should be glass. The best option have a lid with a rubber seal on the bottom that creates a vacuum seal when the jar is closed.
Even with the best type of mason jar, after two days the juice will start to lose its nutritional value due to two factors, heat and oxidation.
- Oxidation is a chemical chain reaction that occurs when food is exposed to oxygen. Juice is made by slicing open the cell wall of produce to extract the juice from the fiber. Once the inside of the cell is exposed to air the chemical reaction kills off some of the juice’s nutrition and contributes to color and odor changes.
- Heat is the other factor that spoils juice quickly. Live enzymes are deactivated when they’re exposed to temperatures over 118 degrees Fahrenheit. That is why raw foodists believe that cooking food kills it’s natural enzymes and makes it less nutritious and harder for our bodies to break down. Juice is made through mechanical juicers that naturally produce heat. The more heat a juicer produces the faster the juice will lose its enzymatic prowess. Similarly, juice kept at room temperature will go bad faster than juice kept in the refrigerator.
At the end of the day a mason jar can only preserve the juice that is there. The overall quality of the juice to begin with is the largest determining factor in how long a juice will last in the refrigerator.
Keep in mind that juice needs to be stored at a low temperature for the best results.
How Long Does Homemade Juice Last With Each Type of Juicer?
There are three main types of juicers that you can use to make juice at home. Each type uses a different method and creates a different amount of heat to process the juice.
I’ll go through each type of juicer: centrifugal, masticating and cold press and discuss which ones not only produce the least amount of heat but maintain the nutritional integrity of the produce used to make the juice.
Centrifugal Juicer
Centrifugal fast juicers are by far the easiest to use and make juice the quickest. They work by using a motorized blade that spins in a circle.
The blade slices fruit and strains the liquid from the pulp. It sends the pulp into a garbage container and the juice into a pourable measuring cup.
This method of slicing produce to extract juice uses a lot of power and heat. So juice made with a centrifugal juicer oxidizes the fastest.
I still prefer a centrifugal juicer to make homemade juice because it’s the fastest to use and easiest to clean. I use the Breville juicer because it’s dishwasher safe.
Masticating Juicers Also Known As Cold Press Juicers
When it comes to slow juicers like cold press juicers they say, “less haste, less waste,” because cold press juicers extract juice without creating heat or leaving valuable juice behind.
Masticating juicers extract juice from the pulp through mechanical chewing, similar to how we chew our food by using an auger that spins.
Masticating juicers use less heat and are not as damaging to the cells of fresh produce. So green juice extracted from a masticating juicer has more enzymes and a greater nutritional value than juice made from the spinning blade of a centrifugal juicer.
Triturating Juicers
Triturating or twin-gear juicers are the ultimate juicer for juice lovers. These juicers are commonly used in commercial settings like juice bars and healing centers. They’re similar to masticating juicers because they use two augers while a masticating juicer only uses one.
Triturating juicers work even slower than their masticating / cold press cousins and produce even more juice, create less waste and generate even less heat. If you have a ton of time and patience making homemade vegetable juice with a a twin-gear juicer and storing them in mason jars will yield the longest lasting juice.
This type of juice can last up to 3-4 days in the refrigerator. But after the first day they lose 40% of their nutritional value.
Hydraulic Juicer
The best type of juicer around is the hydraulic juicer. Hydraulic juicers cost 1000’s of dollars, are cumbersome, hard to clean and notoriously difficult to use. However they produce the best juice with the least amount of heat and waste through a high pressure processing method. Juice produced by a hydraulic juicer will last up to 5 days in the fridge if it’s stored in a mason jar or another glass bottle.
Juice Recipes to Try At Home
Delicious Watermelon Mint Juice Recipe
This Watermelon juice is light and sweet with juice a touch of refreshing mint.
Refreshing Pineapple and Cucumber Juice
Pineapple and cucumber are the perfect combination for this cleansing and refreshing green juice.
The Best First Watch Kale Tonic Copycat Recipe
If you’ve ever had the kale tonic at First Watch you’ll love being able to recreate it at home with this easy copycat recipe!
My All Time Favorite Green Juice Recipe
This ultra healthy fresh juice tastes like green lemonade. Even the pickiest eaters will enjoy it.
Can You Store Fresh Juice In Mason Jars?
Yes, you can store fresh juice in a mason jar.
How Long Does Homemade Juice Last In The Fridge?
Homemade juice will last up to 48 hours in the fridge if it’s stored properly in a mason jar with a lid with a rubber stopper on the bottom that creates a vacuum seal.
How Long Does Fresh Bottled Juice Last?
Fresh bottled juice will last anywhere from 24 hours to five days depending on how it is stored and what kind of juicer was used to make it.
Refer to the section above to learn how long juice extracted from masticating, hydraulic, twin-gear, cold press and centrifugal will last in a mason jar.
How Long Does Celery Juice Last In A Mason Jar?
Celery juice will last up to 48 hours in a mason jar just like any other type of fresh green juice. Beet, carrot and orange juice will also last the same amount of time.
The amount of heat the juice is exposed to, and how it is stored will determine how quickly the juice will oxidate and therefore, how long it will last in a mason jar.
How To Make Fresh Juice Last Longer
Fresh juice doesn’t last long because it doesn’t have preservatives in it, but there are still some tricks that you can use to make it last longer.
- Freeze: You can freeze fresh juice for up to 6 months in the freezer. Simply gather lots of organic produce and meal prep a ton of juice at once. Place it directly into a mason jar and leave an inch of room at the top. This is important because the juice will expand when you freeze it. If you fill the jar all the way up, then the juice will expand and cause the mason jar to crack. It’s actually safer to freeze juice in a plastic bottle.
- Citrus juice like lemon juice or lime juice are natural preservatives.
- Pasteurization at home: Healthy types of pasteurization are becoming a common method used to help fresh juice last longer in the fridge. You can pasteurize juice at home by placing it in a double boiler and heating it up to 157 degrees Fahrenheit or 70 degrees Celsius. I wouldn’t recommend heat pasteurizing juice at home because it will kill off all of the live enzymes and a lot of the nutrients in the juice.
- In commercial settings companies can use cold pasteurization to increase the shelf-life of juice without using heat. Cold pasteurization uses micropore membrane filters to catch as much bacteria and yeast as possible. This type of pasteurization is used on heat sensitive food products like juice. Cold pasteurized juice will last up to 100 days in the fridge.
A great way to increase your juice’s shelf life is to freeze it!
The easiest way to make fresh-squeezed juice last more than couple of days is to freeze it in a plastic container.
You can freeze fresh juice for up to 6 months in the freezer. Simply gather lots of organic produce and meal prep a lot of juice at once. Place it directly into a mason jar and leave an inch of room at the top.
This is important because the juice will expand when you freeze it. If you fill the jar all the way up the juice will expand and cause the mason jar to crack. The best container to freeze a batch of juice in is a plastic container.
Some problems you might come across when freezing juice is that it separates when it defrosts. This really isn’t a problem because it still tastes the same. Only juice made with fruit will separate when frozen but juice made only from green vegetables will not separate.
I usually defrost my juice by taking it out of the freezer and placing it in the fridge over night.
On hot days I just take the frozen juice out of the freezer and sip it as it defrosts throughout the morning. If you don’t want your juice to separate you can defrost it in a bowl of cold water.
You can juice in advance but juice has the most nutritional value the second it’s made. Even after only 24 hours 40% of the juice’s nutritional value will die. If you have to juice a day in advance make sure to store the juice in a mason jar in the fridge. This is the best way to keep homemade juice fresh!
Yes you can store fresh juice in a glass mason jar with a rubber lid that creates a vaccum seal when closed. Always keep your juice below 40 degrees F so that it lasts a long time. Make sure to keep the juice out of the heat and direct sunlight. Both heat and direct sunlight will cause the juice to oxidize and turn brown faster.
