I have juice regularly, but it was only this morning that I noticed it was particularly foamy. And it got me thinking – what is the foam that forms on top of your juice?
I never really questioned it before, but I decided to do some research into it, in case you’ve found yourself asking the same question as me!
When you juice fruits and vegetables some air can get mixed into it, especially if you use a centrifugal juicer, this air combines with the juice and creates a froth on top. This foam is perfectly safe to drink it just doesn’t taste the best so you can scrape it off with a spoon.
The reason you tend to get it a lot more if you use a centrifugal juicer because this type of juicer has a fast spinning blade inside it that extracts juice. The high speeds cause lots of air to get caught inside your fresh juice which forms tiny little air bubbles that all stick together and this is the froth on top of your juice.
During my research, I found out a little more on how to stop foam from forming, what to do with it if you get it and whether or not you lose any nutrition in it.
Read on for more!
In This Article
Is It Safe To Drink The Foam On Top Of Juice?
Absolutely! There’s no reason that the foam would be bad for you, it’s just your juice mixed with air bubbles – that’s all!
If you’re really worried, you don’t have to drink it. You won’t be missing out on any of the nutrition by just drinking your juice.
Do You Lose Nutrition In The Foam?
Not really, no. When it comes to the foam, there’s only a tiny amount of juice in there. If you just left the foam on its own in a glass, it would turn back into a few drops of juice.
You aren’t really missing out on any nutrition by not drinking the foam because the amount of juice in there is negligible.
Can You Turn The Foam Back Into Juice?
If you just leave your fresh juice to sit long enough with the foam on top, it will all eventually turn back into a liquid and mix with the rest of the juice.
You don’t have to do this though. The juice that’s in the foam has been oxidised, so the nutrition in it has started to degrade.
The foam can also taste quite bitter, so if you do want to drink it, I would mix it in with the rest of your juice.
If you want to get rid of the foam you can do it with either a fine mesh strainer, like these I’ve reviewed, or a small tea strainer.
Just pour the juice through the strainer and it’ll catch the worst of the froth on top. Or you can just use a spoon and scrape it off.
You can make it easy to get rid of your foam by pouring your juice into bottles (here are my top juice bottle picks for long-lasting juice). As you fill up your bottle, the foam rises to the top and you’ll be able to just scrape it off.
But one of the fun things I discovered you can do with juice foam is freeze it. It turns into a kind of sorbet, which is really tasty.
How To Stop Foam From Forming On Your Juice
Unfortunately, foam is just one of those things that happens.
You tend to get more foam with centrifugal juicers because of their spinning blades, so if you have one of these and the foam is a real problem for you, then you could consider getting a masticating juicer instead. However, even with a top of the range twin-gear, masticating juicer, you’ll still get foaming from time to time!
The best way to deal with foaming is by using either a strainer or a spoon, they’ll get rid of it just fine.
The reason masticating juicers cause less froth is because they use a slower process than centrifugal juicers – they’re known as cold juicers and slow juicers for a reason! They have a slow auger that crushes the fruits and vegetables you put in, squeezing out every last bit of juice. I’ve got my top masticating juicers here!
Meanwhile, centrifugal juicers can work anywhere up to 14,000 RPM – very fast! They have a fast-spinning cutting blade that your ingredients hit, then they get mulched up and the juice gets flung to the side. The juice itself flies through the air, causing more oxidation in your juice and resulting in a much higher chance of ending up with froth.
The big culprits of causing foam, in terms of ingredients, tend to be apples, leafy veggies and tomatoes. There’s something about them, possibly their fiber content, that causes them to create more foam than other fruits and veggies. Carrot juice, however, is the opposite. You don’t tend to get much foam at all.
One last thing you can try, if you have a masticating juicer, is to put the gears in the freezer for 8 to 12 hours before you use your juicer. I’m not entirely sure why this works, and I’m yet to try this myself, because it seems excessive. And I don’t actually mind the foam.
Conclusion
So basically, you don’t have to worry about it. The froth on juice is just a natural byproduct of juicing and nothing to worry about.
If you really don’t like the taste, you can remove it with a strainer or just keep it there and have a frothy mustache.
I hope you find this article useful! If you still have any questions, please leave them in the comments below and I’ll get back to you. I may even consider updating the article if it’s a worthy question!
I’m juicing tomatoes and have not tried the juice that is translucent. I’ve always liked my tomato juice red. I don’t really have a problem with the foam, I just stir it all up before I drink it and have found no bad taste from it. Just wondered if there is a way to keep it from separating.
Hmmm that’s an interesting one, looking into it seems like you can stop it separating but it’s difficult, you have to heat up the tomatoes which turns off an enzyme that causes the separation. A problem when using a juicer though, so you can try cut them into quarters and put them in a pot of hot water and bring it to the boil while squashing them. Then continue to add the other tomatoes and simmer for 5 minutes. Or, just live with the seperaion. Hope that helps!
I’ve been canning for years and followed what my mother and everyone else did “skim off the foam” but never really knew why it was just something everyone did but I knew if you left it set it would disappear back into the juice which made me wonder if I was loosing nutrition, so I decided to google it and found this which I was happy to find out I’m not loosing any nutrition so I will continue to skim off the foam with no worries.
I actually love the foam and juice enough for 3 days of juicing detox. The foam does disapear and I miss it on the other 2 days. I think its frothy and yummy and always drink and enjoy it on the first day of my only juice detox.