Inside a Valencia plant, thousands of golden citrus fruits are juiced daily for one of America’s favorite fast food chains.

Chick-Fil-A’s signature lemonade is sourced from Bay Center Foods based in Valencia, who not only make their lemon juice but also uses the entire lemon to minimize food waste. This plant not only supplies the liquid gold for Chick-Fil-A’s in Los Angeles County, but also nationwide.

California is the largest lemon producer in the nation, with the state producing 1.06 million tons in 2022–23, according to the Citrus Industry.

The plant is located in Valencia and emphasizes the plan not to waste anything from the fruit. Kurt Cahill with Bay Center wants to find ways to ensure the lemon is used from peel to pulp.

“So now instead of it going to landfill, it is going to feed the cattle, which in the state of California, there is a lot of cattle and a lot of pigs to feed,” said Cahill in an interview with CBSLA. “We took the lemon peel and dried it into a powder, ground into a powder, and we made a compostable bioplastic out of it.”

Perhaps one day the fried chicken chain will include utensils made out of lemons, but for now, Chick-fil-a will continue making its signature lemonade.

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