The two lines

The five-log reduction

Updated October 2026

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What five logs means How it is achieved Validation is the hard part Juice inside another drink References

The requirement that decides how a juice is made, and the one that rules out the process most small makers would prefer.

What five logs means

A hundred-thousand-fold reduction in the pertinent pathogen: a factor of 10 to the power of five.

The pertinent pathogen is the one most resistant to your process and most likely to be present in your juice, which is a determination about your product rather than a fixed organism.

The requirement is a reduction, not an absence, and it applies to the juice as it will be sold.

How it is achieved

Thermal pasteurization is the usual answer: a time and temperature combination validated to deliver five logs. Effective, well understood, and it changes the flavor, which is exactly what a cold-pressed producer is trying to avoid.

High pressure processing delivers it without heat, which is why premium cold-pressed juice uses it. The equipment is far beyond a small maker, and tolling services exist.

UV treatment is validated for some juices, notably apple cider, and is within reach of a small operation.

Acidification and holding, for some products and some pathogens.

What does not achieve it: cold pressing, filtering, refrigeration, or adding something to the juice without validation.

Validation is the hard part

You do not choose a process and assert it works. It has to be validated for your product, and the basis of that validation is part of the HACCP plan.

Which is where a process authority comes in, exactly as it does for acidified foods: an expert who reviews your product and your process and says in writing what it achieves.

Then monitoring and records, every batch, because a validated process only counts when it was actually followed.

Juice inside another drink

The item people miss. The requirement reaches juice ingredients, not only products sold as juice.

A lemonade, a kombucha with a fruit addition, a mixer with a citrus component: the juice in it is juice.

So "we are not a juice company" is not an answer to this question. What matters is whether there is juice in the bottle.

References

21 CFR Part 120, Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) Systems for juice. Covered processors must achieve a 5-log reduction in the pertinent pathogen. ecfr.gov

US Food and Drug Administration. Juice HACCP Hazards and Controls Guidance. How the 5-log requirement is met, validated and monitored. fda.gov

Cornell University, Cornell Food Venture Center, which acts as a process authority and publishes on scheduled processes and co-packing for small beverage producers. cals.cornell.edu

Written from the federal regulation and agency guidance named on each page, not from a laboratory. Whether a particular product meets a pathogen reduction requirement, and what its alcohol content actually is, are measurements about your product, and this is not those measurements.