Edwin L. Moore

Edwin L. Moore (May 26, 1916 - July 10, 2009) was a researcher for the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). With Louis G. MacDowell and C. D. Atkins in the 1940s, he helped develop a new process for making frozen concentrated orange juice. Moore was inducted into the Florida Agricultural Hall of Fame in 1986 for his contributions to the Citrus Industry and was inducted into the Florida Citrus Hall of Fame in 1983.

Moore was born in Springfield, Massachusetts, in 1916. When Moore was a child, he experimented once by growing a grapefruit tree in his basement, it eventually died, but it encouraged his interest in food technology. He also worked at a grocery store when he was young. Moore went on to attend Massachusetts State College, earning a bachelor, masters, and finally a doctorate in food technology in 1942.

After graduating from college, Moore joined the Florida Citrus Commission where he joined the research team of Dr. Louis G. MacDowell and Cedric "C.D." Atkins. They were assigned to find a viable form of an orange juice concentrate that could deliver Vitamin C to soldiers in Europe to help fight scurvy. They were given $8,000, equipment with the sophistication of a high school chemistry lab, and assigned to an old USDA lab in Winter Haven, Florida. Their research would also be of benefit to the citrus industry in Florida.

The research started in 1942 and it took three years for MacDowell, Moore and Atkins to perfect a method of producing frozen concentrated orange juice that is still utilized today. The process of concentration that was previously being used involved heating the juice so that the water would evaporate. The three researchers invented a process called the cutback process, in which the flavor of orange juice was retained by adding a bit of fresh juice to the concentrate and then freezing it. This new process restored some of the Vitamin C that was lost in heating, thereby creating a more nutritious product. The process helped accelerate the growth of citrus production in Florida and helped create the frozen food industry.

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