In a huge hit to the summer lemonade-stand business, Minute Maid is bidding farewell to its frozen juice and juice blends from concentrate.
By the end of March, slushy cylinders of the brand’s orange juice, lemonade and limeade, as well as Five Alive juice blend and Fruitopia fruit cocktail, will no longer be available in Canada and the U.S.
“We are discontinuing our frozen products and exiting the frozen can category in Canada in response to shifting consumer preferences,” reads a statement from a spokesperson at Minute Maid parent company Coca-Cola.
The spokesperson said the company is aiming to align its juice products to what consumers want, noting that it’s a category that is growing “strongly.”
The frozen drink was originally created on the back of wartime research that sought to develop a method of dehydrating medical supplies such as penicillin and blood plasma, a process that was then applied to food products for the US Army in World War II.
By the late 1940s, the juices were being sold commercially, complete with snappy ads featuring crooner Bing Crosby.
“There was a time when society was all about convenience,” says retail analyst Bruce Winder, harkening back to midcentury America. “Highly processed food wasn’t looked down on.”
Now, Winder says consumers are more health-conscious. They may be looking for natural, fresh-squeezed options while associating juice from concentrate with high-sugar consumption.
If Minute Maid is trying to align with modern appetites, keeping an old, unwanted product in circulation can create negative associations with the brand, according to Winder.
“It starts to look silly if you have a product on the shelves that consumers don’t want,” he says. “It can downgrade a brand.”
Coca-Cola originally announced the decision to move away from the frozen products in July 2025.
Last summer, Minute Maid notified the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 175, the union representing workers at the company’s plant in Peterborough, Ont., that the decision would trigger layoffs. The union represents about 80 people at the factory.
According to the union, six of the 38 affected workers were given “enhanced” severance packages while the remaining 32 employees will retain full-time employment at another facility in Ontario.
“The Union worked to ensure that our members at Minute Maid were treated fairly and supported throughout the layoff process,” said UFCW Local 175 President Kelly Tosato in a statement.
“A large number of our members at Minute Maid are long-time employees with many years of service with the company. The members take great pride in their work and the quality products they manufacture, and the Union will always be there to support them.”
The union says the factory in Peterborough will continue to make other Minute Maid products.
Coca-Cola said its frozen juice will remain on the shelves as long as supplies last.
