In September, Japanese peeling innovator Astra attended the IFPA show in the USA. As well as catching up with existing customers and meeting familiar new visitors, the company's most significant achievement at the show was the discovery of the previously unrecognised capacity of its existing peeler model. This revelation led to the development of a new market for their peelers. Ryo Takeshita, Sales Manager at Astra, shared his story.
“In recent years, jicama has become popular in the US as a healthy, low-calorie, low-sugar food. As word of its nutritional benefits spread, people eagerly embraced this newfound superfood. We hadn't actually seen jicama until the IFPA exhibition. I personally tried them last year, but that was it. We learned that the skin has some natural toxins, so it's not edible. But the inside can be eaten in many ways - raw in salads, cooked in various ways like steaming, boiling, sautéing or frying.”
Ryo Takeshita, Wataru Ichijo with Astra, Maxwell Krieger with Dark Side Equipment, a US distributor from Denver Colorado.
“At the IFPA exhibition, a Mexican company came to our stand. The company produces tonnes of jicama on large farms and sells the processed jicama to retail stores and supermarket chains. Peeling is a big problem for them - they currently peel the products by hand, which is labour intensive and time consuming, and without an efficient peeling solution, the revenue potential for jicama could remain untapped,” Ryo said, “At their request, we tried peeling this product for the first time.”
“We had never seen jicama before, until a visitor asked if the Astra peeler could peel it.”
“Peeling a jicama is quite a challenge. Unlike the thin skin of an apple, the skin of a jicama is tough and rigid, not as prickly as a pineapple, but definitely stronger than what the ASTRA blades are used to.” Ryo introduced, “what makes peeling a jicama particularly tricky is its size - it's big and shaped like a UFO, and that complicates things further. It's not just the hard and uneven skin that's a problem; the odd shape adds a whole new level of difficulty to the peeling process.”
Ryo recalls his surprise on discovering the peeler's ability with jicama: "At first I doubted that any machine could handle such an odd shape. We tested two jicamas and achieved only 70% quality, as I expected. But this gave us an idea. By tweaking the settings and parts, we might be able to achieve successful peeling. After implementing this idea, the third trial resulted in an impressive 100% peeling quality. Ryo said, "This breakthrough wouldn't have been possible without the generous supply of jicama provided by the Mexican company, which allowed us to conduct thorough tests.
When asked about the benefits of using Astra peelers for peeling jicama, Ryo proudly explains, "Perhaps our ASTRA peeler is the only tool that can handle jicama beautifully. Designed to follow the contours of the shape, it works effectively with the 'UFO' shape, which makes a significant difference in what it can and can't peel".
Unexpected discovery of peeling possibility
Astra learned of the peeler's ability to peel jicama from a Mexican visitor. There are many other cases where Astra has discovered the unexpected capabilities of the peeler. Kabocha pumpkin, jackfruit, tuna... we didn't think of peeling these products until customers asked.
“In Japan, users of the KA-750PM model predominantly used it for kabocha-pumpkin peeling. Initially, the first model didn't have a pumpkin mode because it hadn't been considered. However, a request from a customer changed everything. After peeling hundreds of pumpkins and studying the challenge, we discovered the need for new parts and programming specific to pumpkin peeling. This message from the customer was the gateway to the development of the peeler and its revolutionary advances."
“Prickly pear is another good example. We didn't even know what it was when a client asked us about the possibility of peeling with Astra peeler. We had to buy the first batch of tuna for testing through a Mexican food importer. Surprisingly, we found that our KA-700H peeler could effectively peel this fruit.”
Click here to see a video of the peeler and peeling process
“Of course, there are well-known fruits and vegetables that are difficult to peel, such as large grapefruits and pomelos, due to their size and thick skin. However, we are currently working on a new technology that will allow us to peel these difficult fruits beautifully. This new technology is approximately 70-80% complete and is awaiting market testing and evaluation. Updates on this development will be shared on Fresh Plaza," said Ryo.
"Inspired by the visitors we occasionally met at exhibitions, we started to try different types of products to see the potential of the peeler. As the ASTRA peeler is good at adjusting and peeling different shapes, there are many fruits in the world that we don't know about, but we can peel with our machine". Ryo said, "For those readers of this article whom we have never met, you are welcome to visit our stand at an exhibition with real fruits to test our machines!
For more information:
ASTRA Inc.
Mr. Ryo Takeshita
Tel.: +81 0245412444
E-mail: en.info@e-astra.co.jp
Website: https://en.e-astra.co.jp/