What Is Ozonated Water?
Ozone (O₃) is a molecule composed of three oxygen atoms, as opposed to the two in breathable atmospheric oxygen (O₂). It's naturally produced by ultraviolet light acting on atmospheric oxygen, and artificially generated by passing oxygen through an electrical discharge (corona discharge) or UV-C light source.
When dissolved in water, ozone creates ozonated water — a strong oxidising agent. It oxidises organic material on the surface of produce, and because the ozone molecule is unstable it reverts to ordinary oxygen (O₂) rather than leaving a persistent sanitiser residue behind.
This matters for us because cold-pressed juice is unpasteurised. There is no heat step downstream to deal with what came in from the field, so the wash before pressing carries more weight than it does in a heat-treated product.
Ozone Versus Chlorine
You will often see the figure "3,100× more effective than chlorine" attached to ozonated water. That number circulates widely, but efficiency comparisons depend heavily on concentration, contact time, water chemistry, temperature and what is being washed. Rather than quote a single multiplying factor as though it transfers to every situation, we say this: ozone is a faster-acting oxidiser than chlorine under many conditions, which is why food processors use it, and it does not leave a chlorine taste or persistent residue the way chlorine washes can.
Our practical reason for choosing ozone is simpler than any multiplier: our juice tastes like the ingredient. A chlorinated wash can leave a detectable off-taste in a raw juice where there is nothing else to hide behind.
What We Are Not Claiming
Some brands suggest chlorine residue from produce washing harms your gut bacteria. We are not making that claim — the amounts involved are small and this is not established in a way we can responsibly repeat. Chlorine washes are approved and widely used in food production. We prefer ozone for taste and residue reasons, not because we think chlorine-washed produce is dangerous.
FDA GRAS Status
In 2001, the US Food and Drug Administration affirmed ozone as Generally Recognised as Safe (GRAS) for direct contact with food. This followed a petition from the Electric Power Research Institute and extensive review of the scientific literature. GRAS status means the FDA has determined that qualified experts agree on the substance's safety for the intended use.
This is not a fringe supplement designation. This is the same regulatory framework used to classify salt, citric acid, and vinegar. Ozone is as legally defined as safe as any standard food processing agent.
What It Does To Produce
An ozone wash is a surface treatment, and it is a genuinely effective one in the right conditions. Used properly it meaningfully reduces surface microbial load, oxidises some pesticide residues, and removes soil and visible organic matter from produce — all things you would rather not press into a bottle.
What we want to be careful about is how far that reaches:
- It reduces surface load. It is not a sterilisation step. Effectiveness varies with ozone concentration, dissolved-ozone contact time, water temperature, organic loading in the wash water, and produce surface texture.
- It cannot reach everything. Damage, cuts, stem scars and internal contamination are not reliably addressed by any surface wash. This is a known limitation of washing in general.
- It does not make raw juice shelf-stable. This is the honest bottom line, and we want it said clearly: a washed, cold-pressed, unpasteurised juice is still a raw food with a short refrigerated life.
Why This Section Is Worded Carefully
Unpasteurised juice carries a food-safety risk, and no produce wash removes it entirely. Any brand implying their raw juice is free of pathogens because of a washing step is overselling. Our safety controls are the wash plus refrigeration, short shelf life, clear use-by guidance, and honest advice about who should not drink raw juice. Those controls together matter more than any single step.
What It Does Not Affect
Ozonated water is used briefly as a wash and then the produce is pressed — no ozone remains in the finished juice. In practice a short surface wash does not meaningfully change the flavour or nutritional character of the ingredients, which is the point. We are not claiming anything inside the body from it. It is a cleaning step in production, nothing more.
How We Got Here
Celery that arrives straight from the farm can carry visible soil and organic matter. That is normal for low-spray produce, and it is exactly the material a wash needs to deal with before pressing. Seeing it first-hand is what pushed us to invest in a proper ozone wash system rather than relying on a rinse.
We want to be straight about what that story means: our wash exists because raw produce is dirty on arrival and because we sell a raw, unpasteurised product. It exists to reduce risk as much as we reasonably can at production stage — not because it makes the finished juice sterile, which nothing in our process does.
What We Keep Refrigerated, And Why
Because the wash is not a sterilisation step, the rest of our controls carry the safety burden. Our juice is kept refrigerated below 5°C, sold with a short 3–5 day life, delivered or collected chilled, and labelled clearly. We also tell customers openly that unpasteurised juice is not suitable for pregnant women, young children, older adults, or people with weakened immune systems.
If a brand sells raw juice and does not give you that guidance, that is a bigger warning sign than anything about their washing method.
The Glengala Fresh Standard
All of our ingredients go through an ozonated water wash before cold-pressing. It is simply part of how we work — a produce wash, done properly, and nothing more than that.