Safest Juicers with Less Plastic & Microplastics — Guide

Where are the safest non-toxic juicer appliances used to make delicious homemade fresh juices without plastic? Mamavation contacted the most popular juice maker companies asking them about the materials used in their juice makers. We then divided the different juicers by safety concerns instead of focusing on ease of use like other reviewers. You’ve trusted Mamavation to bring you topics like safest olive oils tested for phthalates, safest nut milk makers, & safest plant-based milk beverages, now join us for an investigation on the safest juicers based on materials and ingredients.

Disclosure: This post was medically reviewed by Sondra Strand, RN, BSN, PHN. Donations were provided by Environmental Health News and Mamavation community members. Note that Mamavation has only “spot-checked” the industry and thus we cannot make predictions about brands and products that we have not tested. Products and manufacturing aides can change without notice so buyer beware. This post contains affiliate links, with most to Amazon, which means Mamavation will receive a portion of those sales. You can also give a tax-deductible donation to our consumer studies here through Environmental Health Sciences. Thank you!  Copyright © 2024 Mamavation — All Rights Reserved

Types of Juicers

The first thing you need to decide when shopping for a juicer is what type of juicer you want to purchase. This decision can be made based on what types of fruit & veggies you want to juice and whether you want “cold press” or not. Most juicers will separate the juice from the pulp, which is different than what a blender would do. There are three basic options discussed below:

• Masticating juicers—Also known as “slow masticating juicers,” these use an auger to crush veggies and fruit and squish them through a screen. This is considered more of a low-speed “cold press” juicer retaining more of the nutrients inside the produce. 
• Centrifugal juicers–This type of juicer uses a flat disc with teeth to grate the produce and cut it into small pieces. They are then spun into a sieve to separate the juice from the pulp. This juicer is a high speed juicer and is more useful when having to juice harder fruits and vegetables.
• Citrus & Pomegranate Juicers (Press)—This type of juicer only works for specific fruits, such as oranges, grapefruit, and pomegranates. It’s very simple in design and doesn’t always require mechanical parts.

Furthermore, juicers are very different than blenders. Whereas juicers only press the juice to release the liquid and give you leftover parts separate from the juice, blenders break down everything and create a smooth mixture without leaving anything behind. If you are interested in smoothies or a blender, we have also done a special investigation on safest blenders here.

Main Parts of the Juicer

There are many parts of a juicer and when you use them, they have to be washed so frequently, you’ll get to know those parts well. After using your juicer, you’ll want to wash most of the parts with warm soapy water (or cold water if the pieces are plastic). Here are the dish soaps we recommend using. If you use your juicer enough, you may need to purchase spare parts in the future, so it’s best to know what they are called.

• Strainer: These parts are typically found on a masticating juicer and they grind and filter the juice.
• Lid: Sometimes juice containers come with lids and this would be that part.
• Juice Container: Where the juice flows into. Could be made from plastic or glass.
• Pulp Container: The leftover fibers from the fruits and vegetables are collected in this container.
• Spout: This is where the juice comes out and flows into a waiting glass or juice container.
• Hopper: You’ll mostly find these pieces in masticating juicers. You use them to fill with pieces of food that are then pushed into the chute.
• Auger: This is only found on masticating models. This piece is typically made from plastic and it crushes the fruits and vegetables in a slow juicer.
• Wide Feed Chute & Pusher: This is where you put the fruit and veggies in. Chutes tend to be wider for centrifugal juicers and smaller for masticating juicers.
• Bowl: These parts typically are found on a citrus juicer and they catch the juice before it comes out of the spout.
• Pusher: This would be a plastic piece that helps you shove the fruit or vegetable contents into the chute. If this part is plastic, it’s not really as problematic as other parts that are plastic. But it’s very important to handwash this part in cold water and never expose to heat.

Most juicers claim to have dishwasher-safe parts, however if they are made from plastic and that plastic is a food contact surface, you’ll never want to wash that part in the dishwasher. Why? Because when you heat plastic it starts to break down and may start to release mystery chemicals contained inside the plastic over time. This is especially problematic when you are juicing with fruits and vegetables high in acid like citrus and tomatoes.

Most Juicers Are Made from Plastic Parts That Touch the Juice — Facts on Leaching

The most important goal for Mamavation in this investigation is to lessen the amount of hormone-disrupting chemicals and other plasticizers your family would be potentially exposed to through juicing.  The best case scenario is to purchase a juicer that doesn’t have plastic parts touching your juice, but if you cannot do that, the second best thing is to avoid juicing with fruits and vegetables that are high in acidity. Why? Leaching happens when heat, high fat, and high acid are applied to the plastic over time. This is why you also want to never put those plastic parts into the dishwasher where they will get hot.

Here is a breakdown of what fruits and veggies are the most acidic and most likely to leach plastic additives over time.

• Most likely to leach based on acidity: Oranges, limes, grapefruits, blueberries, other citrus fruits like pinapple, cranberries, & cherries.
• May leach based on acidity: Grapes, whole apple, peaches, pear, pomegranate, guava, & tomato.
• Least likely to leach based on acidity: Leafy greens made into green juice like kale or spinach, ginger, carrots, celery, mango, cucumber, beets, wheatgrass, acai berry, etc.

Many Juicers are Non-Transparent About Materials

When Mamavation emailed brands for this investigation, we didn’t get transparent information from most companies. In fact, very few of them responded with specific details about their plastic materials other than to tell us they were made from “BPA-free” plastic.

The truth is any polymer (i.e. plastic) has the ability to leach mystery additives that can disrupt hormones over time. Furthermore, there are other chemicals in the bisphenol category other than Bisphenol-A (BPA), such as Bisphenol-S (BPS), that are just as problematic to hormonal health. So for a company to say their plastic is “BPA-free” isn’t really telling us that much. In our investigation, we opted instead for mostly stainless steel or glass parts.

Mamavation’s Investigation About Juicers

Not Our Favorite Juicers

These companies either have components with PTFE, a type of PFAS “forever chemical” or they did not return our communications so we do not know what the inside consists of that touches the juice content.

• Garde TableTop King Garde MCJ-1 Manual Commercial Citrus Juicer 
• Hamilton Beach Big Mouth® Pro Juice Extractor
• Hazel Quinn Masticating Juicer, Slow Cold Press Juicer for Fruit and Vegetable
• KaTom Omega MMC500C Heavy Duty Centrifugal Juicer, 120v
• Kitchen Groups Electric Fruit and Vegetable Juicer Machine
• MOD Cold Press Juicer + Wellness Bundle
• Ninja Never Clog, Cold Press Juicer
• Waring 6001C Heavy-Duty Juice Extractor

Better Juicers

These products have plastic touching the juice or fruit, however, they were responsive to requests about materials and they do not have any PFAS “forever chemical” coatings or BPA.

• Angel Juicer 5500
• Breville the Juice Fountain® XL Pro
• Calony U-JE-24 Hands-Free Slow Juicer
• Cuisinart® Compact Blender Juice Extractor Combo
• Eurolux Die Cast Stainless Steel Electric Citrus Juicer Squeezer, for Orange, Lemon, Grapefruit
• Hurom H200 Easy Clean Slow Juicer
• Kuvings Whole Slow Juicer B6000
• Nama J1 Cold Press Jucier
• Nutribullet Juicer Pro
• Nutribullet Centrifugal Juicer
• Omega Effortless™ Batch Juicer

Best Juicers

These products may have some plastic parts, but were mostly safe. The parts were mostly stainless steel, cast iron, or glass. You may find the “pushers” to be made from plastic, but that is not as much as a problem as exposure to the juice directly. This category also does not contain plastic made from bisphenols or PFAS coatings. This category also contains lots of citrus press juicers.

• Ald Professional (Weifeng) A-WFA3000 Juicer Machine  | Fruit and Vegetables Juice Maker | Stainless Steel Blades | Commercial Juice Extractor | 110V
• Breville 800CPXL Citrus Press Pro, Motorized Die Cast Stainless Steel, 1, Brushed Stainless
• Cast-Iron Manual Citrus Juicer, Heavy-Duty Non-Skid Hand Press Juice Squeezer, Extra-Large Countertop Lemon, Lime, Orange Juicer, Black Stainless Steel Juice Presser
• Gourmia GMJ9970 Large Citrus Juicer – Commercial Grade
• PURE Vitality Juicer (Opt for maple pusher and replace the polypropelene press cloths with cotton cheesecloths. This machines boasts the highest juice yield because of the hydrolic press.)
• Sana Store Remidag SP-M1 electric citrus juicer (stainless steel)
• Tribest Pro MJP-105 XL Professional Manual Cold Press Juicer Machine for Pomegranates and Citrus
• VEVOR Commercial Juice Extractor Heavy-Duty Juicer