{"id":74430,"date":"2026-07-23T21:06:42","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T01:06:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=74430"},"modified":"2026-07-23T21:06:54","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T01:06:54","slug":"u-s-department-of-health-and-human-services-hhs-secretary-robert-f-kennedy-jr-spoke-at-bonnet-springs-to-announce-a-long-sought-regulatory-change-for-the-american-citrus-industry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2026\/07\/23\/u-s-department-of-health-and-human-services-hhs-secretary-robert-f-kennedy-jr-spoke-at-bonnet-springs-to-announce-a-long-sought-regulatory-change-for-the-american-citrus-industry\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. spoke at Bonnet Springs to announce a long-sought regulatory change for the American citrus industry"},"content":{"rendered":"
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U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.<\/strong> spoke at Bonnet Springs Park in Lakeland, Florida<\/strong>, to announce a long-sought regulatory change for the American citrus industry: an update to the FDA\u2019s 1963 Standard of Identity (SOI) for pasteurized orange juice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The federal rule change directly impacts Florida growers who have struggled for years against citrus greening disease and severe weather patterns.<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Key Takeaways from the Announcement<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
    \n
  • Lowering the “Brix” Floor:<\/strong> The FDA issued a final rule reducing the minimum Brix level<\/strong>\u2014the measure of natural dissolved sugar content and soluble solids\u2014from 10.5\u00b0 down to 10.0\u00b0<\/strong>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Increased Mandarin\/Tangerine Blending:<\/strong> Processors are now permitted to include up to 15%<\/strong> Citrus reticulata<\/em> (mandarin\/tangerine) or hybrid juice by volume (up from the previous 10% limit).<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Slashing Foreign Dependency:<\/strong> Because bacterial greening naturally lowers sugar levels in domestic oranges, U.S. juice processors previously had to import high-sugar fruit (primarily from Brazil) simply to meet the arbitrary 10.5\u00b0 benchmark.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Economic Impact:<\/strong> Federal officials estimate the update will save domestic producers upwards of $50 to $60 million annually<\/strong> in operational and importing costs.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

    Why Florida Citrus Leaders Are Celebrating<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    Decades of bacterial infection (Huanglongbing<\/em> \/ citrus greening) have devastated Florida’s historic orange groves, making it increasingly difficult for growers to consistently hit the rigid 1963 sugar standard without sacrificing domestic fruit.<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Florida agricultural groups (including Florida Citrus Mutual and the Florida Citrus Processors Association) petitioned the FDA for this shift.<\/sup> Local lawmakers who pushed for the Defending Domestic Orange Juice Production Act<\/em> joined Secretary Kennedy, Acting FDA Commissioner Kyle Diamantas, and state agricultural representatives on stage to welcome the rule, which takes effect in August<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. spoke at Bonnet Springs Park in Lakeland, Florida, to announce a long-sought regulatory change for the American… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":74432,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"{title}\n\n{excerpt}\n\n{url}","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":71799,"font":"","enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyNlwvMDdcL2Rvd25sb2FkLTEud2VicD9maXQ9ODgwJTJDNDk1JnNzbD0xIiwidHh0IjoiVS5TLiBEZXBhcnRtZW50IG9mIEhlYWx0aCBhbmQgSHVtYW4gU2VydmljZXMgKEhIUykgU2VjcmV0YXJ5IFJvYmVydCBGLiBLZW5uZWR5IEpyLiBzcG9rZSBhdCBCb25uZXQgU3ByaW5ncyB0byBhbm5vdW5jZSBhIGxvbmctc291Z2h0IHJlZ3VsYXRvcnkgY2hhbmdlIGZvciB0aGUgQW1lcmljYW4gY2l0cnVzIGluZHVzdHJ5IiwidGVtcGxhdGUiOiJkb2lzIiwiZm9udCI6IiIsImJsb2dfaWQiOjE2MzA0MDY2MX0.WAceGjPerAP704sENMuY3etZE57AJo3COuEypNGYqlIMQ"},"version":2,"media_source":"sig","attached_media":[{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/jetpack.com\/redirect\/?source=sigenerate&query=t%3DeyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvbGFrZWxhbmRnYXpldHRlLmluZm9cL25ld3NcL3dwLWNvbnRlbnRcL3VwbG9hZHNcLzIwMjZcLzA3XC9kb3dubG9hZC0xLndlYnAiLCJ0eHQiOiJVLlMuIERlcGFydG1lbnQgb2YgSGVhbHRoIGFuZCBIdW1hbiBTZXJ2aWNlcyAoSEhTKSBTZWNyZXRhcnkgUm9iZXJ0IEYuIEtlbm5lZHkgSnIuIHNwb2tlIGF0IEJvbm5ldCBTcHJpbmdzIHRvIGFubm91bmNlIGEgbG9uZy1zb3VnaHQgcmVndWxhdG9yeSBjaGFuZ2UgZm9yIHRoZSBBbWVyaWNhbiBjaXRydXMgaW5kdXN0cnkiLCJ0ZW1wbGF0ZSI6ImRvaXMiLCJmb250IjoiIiwiYmxvZ19pZCI6MTYzMDQwNjYxfQ.ObttU4Ru7flujQxLHC5rjcDwDoakTb_VU-DBaBoVBycMQ","type":"image\/jpeg"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[15],"tags":[15151],"class_list":["post-74430","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-u-s-department-of-health-and-human-services-hhs-secretary-robert-f-kennedy-jr-spoke-at-bonnet-springs-to-announce-a-long-sought-regulatory-change-for-the-american-citrus-industry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74430","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74430"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74430\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":74433,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74430\/revisions\/74433"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}