Food Protection Trends - May/June 2021 - 307

institutional review board at the University of California,
Davis, was followed.
Focus group participants were first asked about where
they obtained information about healthy eating, whom they
trusted, and how they responded to conflicting food safety
information. Next, the discussion shifted to criteria related to
the selection of orange juice. Their interest in label terms was
explored by asking participants to rank the importance of " all
natural, " " no added chemicals, " " organic, " " no added sugar, "
" fresh-squeezed, " and " pasteurized, " on a numbered scale from
1 to 5, with 1 meaning most important, and 5 meaning least
important. Next, participants were asked about their preference
for and experiences with fresh-squeezed juice. People were then
asked whether they noticed whether the juice they purchased
was pasteurized and what pasteurization meant to them. The
safety benefit of pasteurization was affirmed, and the effect of
pasteurization on flavor was acknowledged.
Next, an alternative treatment using the processing aid
DMDC was described. Each participant was given a paper
with the statements developed by the authors, and the
statements were read aloud by the moderator or author.
Participants were then asked for their reactions to DMDC
usage, their interest in buying juice treated this way, and their
comfort with the idea that mandatory juice labeling was not
required. Participants discussed five statements proposed
by the authors that a manufacturer might use in marketing
material or on a label about juice treated with DMDC.
Following the discussion, participants individually used a
3-point scale to rate their response to each statement: 1 =
like, 2 = okay, and 3 = don't like. The moderator clarified that
" okay " meant acceptable, whereas " like " indicated preference.
These statements were as follows:
*
*
*
*
*

DMDC used for long-lasting quality
DMDC used to preserve fresh-squeezed flavor
DMDC used for quality and safety
DMDC used to maintain quality
Read about how we make our juice at
www.company-website.com

Finally, participants were asked whether they would buy
fresh-squeezed orange juice that had been treated with
DMDC.
The focus groups were led by individual authors of this
article, with one moderating and the other one taking notes.
Sessions organized through the commercial firm were
recorded and transcribed verbatim, whereas those conducted
with college students were transcribed by the author not
leading the discussion.
Quantitative data were analyzed using a post hoc Wilcoxon
signed-rank test with a significance level of 0.0083, which was
the Bonferroni correction of significance level 0.05 among
six comparison groups. The authors used the transcripts
to analyze the qualitative data. First, major themes were

identified after reading the transcripts. After applying
first-level codes to key phrases, the codes were grouped
with overlapping meaning and co-occurrence into themes
and subthemes. When reporting the qualitative findings,
the authors followed guidelines from Krueger and Casey's
Focus Groups: A Practical Guide for Applied Research (14),
which advised researchers to be cautious of " numbers
being misleading in focus group reports... Not everyone
answers every question... We encourage the use of modifiers
like no one, a few, some, many, most, or all to describe how
many people talked about an issue in a particular way "
(14). Previous studies reporting focus group findings also
employed modifiers instead of percentages or other numerals
(10, 43).
RESULTS
Information about DMDC
Some popular lay internet sources, like WebMD, do not
contain information on dimethyl dicarbonate but link to
other sources, such as Wikipedia and the United Kingdom
Food Guide (37, 39). Most lay internet information about
DMDC defines the compound and addresses its use in
beverages as a preservative (39). Some sources summarize
the European Commission's evaluation of the compound's
safety and describe its use (5, 41). One source incorrectly
states that DMDC is not approved for use in New Zealand
and Australia (2). Another web source describes DMDC as
highly toxic and recommends that it should be banned (42).
The authors developed the following statements about
DMDC based on the review of the lay and scientific literature:
* Dimethyl dicarbonate (abbreviated DMDC) is a
preservative used in juice beverages, sports drinks, ice
teas, and flavored waters in very minute quantities to
ensure that the drink quality and safety are maintained.
* DMDC eliminates spoilage yeast and harmful bacteria.
* When added to a liquid, like juice, DMDC breaks down
immediately by forming methanol, a form of alcohol,
and carbon dioxide gas. The amount of methanol formed
is comparable to what is formed naturally in juice.
* The use of DMDC is strictly regulated. The amount that
would be added to juice to maintain quality and safety is
considered safe by the European Food Safety Authority
as well as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
* Because it is added when the juice is squeezed and
breaks down within minutes, juice with DMDC is not
required to be labeled.
Consumer focus groups
Three focus groups were held with persons recruited
through the consumer research group and three from the
university research methods class. A total of 58 persons
participated in the focus groups: 33 recruited from
Sacramento State University and 25 recruited through

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