Does plastic packaging affect the safety and quality of fruit juice?

What's actually in it

Fruit juice is acidic. Acid is one of the most effective solvents for pulling chemicals out of plastic. When juice sits in a plastic bottle, it's in continuous contact with the plastic surface. The longer it sits, the more migration occurs. Temperature affects this too: room-temperature storage causes more leaching than refrigeration.

PET bottles are the most common for juice. PET can release acetaldehyde, phthalates, and antimony (used as a catalyst in PET production).

What the research says

A 2026 study in Recent Adv Food Nutr Agric tracked the influence of plastic packaging on juice stability post-processing. Researchers found that plastic packaging caused measurable physicochemical changes in juice, including flavor alterations, vitamin degradation, and chemical migration from the packaging material into the juice. The changes worsened with time and temperature.

Glass bottles protect juice better. No migration, no flavor changes from the container, and the juice's actual chemical composition stays as intended.

For juice at home, store in glass food storage. Even if you buy juice in plastic, transferring it to glass for refrigerator storage reduces ongoing chemical migration.