Many processed fruit suppliers to the beer industry, whether they’re selling orange juice or mango puree, tend to call all of their products puree. However, outside of the beer industry, most beverage and food manufacturers tend to categorize processed fruit as purees or juices.

Some processed fruit industry participants would argue that fruits such as orange, grapefruit, lime, lemon, mandarin, blood orange, and passion fruit, should all be classified as juices since the product is squeezed. Notably, many of these are citrus fruits. The people in this camp would take the position that there’s no such thing as “orange puree” or “lime puree.”

The terminology debate can further be nuanced because the fruits that fall into the puree category (mango, pineapple, pear, cherry, etc.) could also be juices if their Brix falls below the standardized range. In this case, a pineapple puree is going to be more viscous than a pineapple juice.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), pure 100% juice must be “all juice” with “no adjustment, not from concentrate.” Puree, meanwhile, is “pulp-containing” and is “more viscous than juices, totally fruit.” 

The FAO provides some guidance in its Agricultural Services Bulletin 146, stating that, “…juice is the fluid expressed from plant material by crushing, comminuting and pressing. It can be clear, cloudy or pulpy. Juice is classified as puree, if the resulting consistency is fluid that pours very slowly, or pulp if it pours even more slowly. To complicate the matter further, juices that are concentrated for preservation, handling and storage and reconstituted for consumption (labelled ‘juice from concentrate’) should be diluted back to approximately the same solids level (designated as Brix or percent soluble solids) of the initial juice. The amount of add-back water can vary substantially even within a given fruit, so reasonable commercial standards are set (FDA, 1999).”