This hardware is not needed to actually make the cold-pressed juice. Picture: Juicero

WHEN an internet-connected juice machine gets $A160 million in funding from Silicon Valley heavyweights, you would expect the device to be an absolute game-changer.

After growing tired of the effort and wastage related with making a fresh beverage at home, product founder Doug Evans set about creating something capable of delivering cold-pressed juice without the need of a large, commercial set-up.

And the Juicero was born.

Customers received organic fruit and vegetables already washed and chopped in a packet that could then be placed into the Juicero Press. With the push of a single button, a fresh glass of cold-pressed juice is made in just two minutes.

“The Press itself creates three to four tons of pressure — enough to lift two Teslas — and enough to squeeze out every drop of organic fresh kale, spinach, apples, and other fruits and vegetables into your glass,” the product description read.

All this goodness didn’t come cheap. The Juicero Press cost $A530 — plus the cost of individual juice packs delivered weekly.

Now customers are asking exactly what they get for their money, with suggestions the product wasn’t all it was cracked up to be, with the $A530 press not actually required — the same result could be achieved by squeezing the juice packets with bare hands.

Juicero investor Doug Chertok was one person to raise doubts about the concept.

“There is no doubt the packs can be squeezed without the machine,” he told Bloomberg.

Following reports of people hacking the product, Juicero chief executive Jeff Dunn came to the defence of the product.

“Our connected Press itself is critical to delivering a consistent, high quality and food safe product because it provides:

“The first closed loop food safety system that allows us to remotely disable Produce Packs if there is, for example, a spinach recall. In these scenarios, we’re able to protect our consumers in real-time.

“Consistent pressing of our Produce Packs calibrated by flavour to deliver the best combination of taste and nutrition every time.

“Connected data so we can manage a very tight supply chain, because our product is live, raw produce, and has a limited lifespan of about eight days,” he wrote in a blog.

If you don’t buy the spin Mr Dunn has put on the product and think you will just buy the bags without the press, there is some bad news: The juicer bags are limited to owners of Juicero hardware, meaning you still need to drop $A530 to take advantage of the pre-prepared fruit and veg.

While it’s probably not the start the company was after, there still might be hope it can survive.

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