This September, Japanese manufacturer of peelers Astra was at the IFPA exhibition located in USA. Along with getting to know existing customers as well as meeting new and familiar visitors Astra’s greatest accomplishment at the event was the revelation of previously unknown capabilities of their current peeler model. This discovery led to establishment of a new market for the peelers. Ryo Takeshita who is the Sales Manager for Astra told his story.

“In recent times, jicama has gained popularity in the US as a nutritious, low-calorie, sugar-free food. Since the news of its nutritional advantages spread, the public eagerly welcomed this superfood that was recently discovered. Jicama was not a food we had ever heard of prior to the IFPA show. Personally, I tried them in the past however that was the end of it. It was discovered that the skin is naturally contaminated with toxins and therefore isn’t food-safe. However, the skin can be eaten in various ways: raw, in salads, or cooked using various methods such as boiling, steaming sauteing, or even frying.”

Ryo Takeshita Wataru Ichijo along with Astra Maxwell Krieger and Maxwell Krieger Dark Side Equipment, a US distributor who is based in Denver Colorado.

“At the IFPA show an Mexican firm visited our booth. They produce tons of jicama from large farms. They sell the finished jicama to retailers shops and grocery chains. Peeling is a major issue for them. Currently, they process the products manually and it is labor-intensive and lengthy, and with no effective peeling method this revenue-generating potential of jicama may not be realized.” Ryo said, “At their request, we tested peeling this fruit for first time.”

“We were unaware of jicama prior to when a guest wanted to know if our Astra peeler was able to peel it.”

“Peeling the jicama’s skin is an effort. It is not as thin as the skin of an apple it’s skin on the jicama is hard and stiff, but not as sharp as the skin of a pineapple, however much stronger than can be sliced with ASTRA blades can withstand.” Ryo introduced, “what that makes peeling a Jicama especially difficult is its dimensions – it’s large and is shaped as an UFO. This adds more difficulty. There’s more than just the tough unduly shaped skin which is the issue; the unusual form adds another degree of difficulty in the process of peeling.”

Ryo remembers his excitement at learning about the peeler’s abilities to work with Jicama “At initially, I wasn’t sure the machine would be able to handle this unusual shape. Two jicamas were tested and only achieved 70% efficiency, which was not what I had hoped. This gave us a concept. If we could tweak the settings as well as parts of the system, we may have the ability to get successful peeling. When we implemented this method and the results of the third test resulted with a remarkable 100% peeling performance. Ryo added, “This breakthrough wouldn’t have been achievable without the abundant amount of jicama supplied by the Mexican firm, which enabled us to conduct extensive tests.

In response to questions about the advantages of the use of Astra peelers to peel the jicama Ryo is proudly explaining, “Perhaps our ASTRA peeler is the only one which can effectively handle jicama. The design is developed to match the lines of the shape it can be used with ease on the UFO shape that makes a huge difference in what it’s able to or cannot do”.

Surprise discovery of possible peeling

Astra discovered the peeler’s capability to remove the jicama of the hands of a Mexican visit. There are numerous other instances in which Astra has been able to recognize the new abilities for the peeler. The jackfruit, Kabocha pumpkin tuna… We didn’t even think about peeling these items until our customers requested it.

“In Japan, users of the model KA-750PM mostly used it to peel kabocha pumpkins. The first model was not equipped with the pumpkin feature because it wasn’t looked at as. But a suggestion from one of our customers changed the whole thing. After peeling many pumpkins and researching the difficulty it was clear that we needed to develop new equipment and programs that was specifically designed for the peeling of pumpkins. This customer’s message led for the creation of the peeler, and the revolutionary advancements it has made.”

“Prickly pear” is another great illustration. We were not even aware of what was going on at the time a potential client inquired regarding the possibility of peeled using the Astra peeler. We were required to purchase the first tuna batch to test via an Mexican importer of foods. It was surprising to find that the KA-700H peeler can successfully peel this tuna.”

Go here to watch a short video showing the peeler as well as the process of peeling

“Of course There are some well-known fruits and veggies that are difficult to peel. These include the large grapefruits and pomelos because of their large dimensions and their tough skin. We are developing a revolutionary technology which will enable us to remove these hard fruit with ease. This technology is 70-80% finished and waiting for market testing and evaluation. Information on the development will be posted through Fresh Plaza,” said Ryo.

“Inspired by the people who we would meet at shows We began to experiment with different kinds of equipment to explore the capabilities of our peeler. Since ASTRA’s ASTRA peeler is adept at adapting and peeling various types of shapes, there are plenty of fruit varieties around the globe which we do not know about however we are able to peel them using our machines”. Ryo added, “For those readers of this piece who we’ve never met, please feel encouraged to stop by our booth in an event with real fruit to try our equipment!

For further information, click here.

ASTRA Inc.

Mr. Ryo Takeshita

Tel. : +81 0245412444

E-mail: en.info@e-astra.co.jp

Website: https://en.e-astra.co.jp/

Source: The Plantations International Agroforestry Group of Companies