Get more nutrients from fruits, vegetables

MANILA, Philippines - The increasing incidents of sickness and diseases in the world have changed the way people take their juices by favoring more the slow extraction process that ensures better yield of nutrients from every fruit or vegetable that gets into the juicers.

One technology on slow extraction or juicing process was brought into the Philippines from Korea — after selling briskly in the more developed markets — by Zinven International Corp. and the juicer is called “Hurom” (which translates to human benefits since “rom” means benefit in Korean and “hu” is a shortcut for human), according to Zinven general manager Catherine Dy.

Created in 2009, the Hurom slow juicer has been selling like hotcakes in Japan, China, the United States, Europe and many parts of Asia but is entering the Philippine market just now.

The juicer uses cutting-edge technology without using sharp metal blades, and the low speed technology system of Hurom gently presses the fruits and vegetables as it extracts the natural nutrients, vitamins, minerals, live enzymes, and natural taste.

Young Gi Kim, chairman of Hurom L.S. Ltd. of Korea and regarded as the “father of juicing” in his country, said, “People are now very much aware of going back to nature, particularly in terms of food consumption and the way to preserve health by consuming as much natural food as possible. Hurom seeks to answer that need for natural food.”

Innovator

Hurom seeks to become an innovator in espousing a new kitchen culture and making its technology more accessible and more affordable to more people in the world.

In the Philippines, Dy said her company is going the rounds of barangays to promote the machine in the hope that communities will invest in the machine (worth P14,975) that their constituents can use for a fee. 

To illustrate, Dy said a traditional high speed (bladed) juicer will use two whole tomatoes to make a glass of tomato juice while Hurom will give that same volume of tomato juice with just a similarly sized tomato using the slow grinding process.

Using Hurom (with GE Ultem pressers, a special plastic used in medical applications and technologies) would enable one to use less fruits and vegetables for more juices.

Dy said two oranges make 5.2 ounce of juice in traditional juicers while for Hurom this makes eight ounces of juice, without water of course. This ratio was arrived at from the test done in California.

For the oranges, “we remove the skin (its pulp tastes bitter) but for other fruits and vegetables, we just dunk the cut pieces inside the Hurom,” she added.

The Hurom juicer slowly presses fruits and vegetables at 70 to 80 rpm (revolution per minute) and with that the natural taste is retained plus the live enzymes which the body direly needs to boost the immune system.

The juicer operates in both clockwise and reverse. It can also extract juices from wheat grass, malunggay, kamias, and singkamas.

Traditional juicers operating on 10,000 to 20,000 rpm speed use blades that produce heat, in turn killing the live enzymes and drastically affecting the flavor of food.

Dy said her experience with Hurom in Legazpi City, Albay showed that even operating non-stop for four hours, the juicer would not overheat and become a fire hazard. The unit operates only on 150 watts.  

There is no need to press the fruits and vegetables into the Hurom; with gravity, they just go down. Hurom also works quietly. With little raw materials, it gives more juice to the consumers. The seeds are separated from the juice without breaking unlike traditional juicers that break the seeds apart).

Fruits that are over-ripe can be turned into instant sherbet by simply freezing them and then grinding them slowly into the Hurom, Dy said.

Because the Hurom uses gravity-based slow process, no raw materials are lost while the unit is operating, unlike in the traditional juicers that operate at high speed where the lid has to be constantly closed to prevent materials from being thrown off the containers.

The Hurom juicer was featured in the Oprah Winfrey show last January, in Bon Apetit magazine in August last year, and Martha Stewart’s Living Well show last November. 

Zinven offers five-year warranty on the motor and one year on other parts. Replacements or repairs can be done at the Zinven head office in front of TriNoma in Quezon City.

The Hurom slow juicer is available at Rustan’s department stores (Makati, Shangrila Tower, Alabang), Rustan’s Supermarket, and S&R (The Fort), and soon in Landmark (Makati and TriNoma). For deliveries, call Home shopping TV at 817-7000.