Re: Electricity Produced in a Bottle of Orange Juice

Very strange! I've never heard of this before, so I can only guess at what might be happening. If the outer surface of the plastic bottle were to become electrostatically charged, then the juice will become charged too, even though the insulating plastic is in the way. If this is the cause, then one simple cure is to remove the imbalanced charge from the bottle by washing it. The conductive water will electrically connect to the bottle's surface, and will discharge the imbalanced charge into ground.

Another cure: open the bottle, then reach inside and touch the juice with a (clean) finger. It will still zap you, but not on your sensitive lips.

Why would the plastic bottle have imbalanced charge in the first place? Perhaps it was in contact with another surface recently. If it was carried in a plastic shopping bag, and if the plastic bag was a different type of plastic, that might explain it. If we rub two different plastic surfaces together, one will develop a positive imbalance of charge. The other will become negative.

If the excess charge was on the outside of the bottle, why would the juice behave as if it was charged too? This occurs because juice is already full of positive and negative charge, and the charges on the plastic will attract opposite charge out of the juice. For example, if the bottle was electrically positive, it would suck negative charges out of the juice, leaving the juice with too much positive.

Another possible cure: when shopping, ask for paper, not plastic.