Juicing Machines – The Masticating Juicer
The fact that commercial juicer machines have made it much easier to to have high quality, nutritious, and unprocessed juice at home is undeniable. As the amount of people interested in juicing increases, the amount in variety of juicing machines available for purchase also increases. These choices include brand name, style, and of course price. Although, the most distinguishing characteristic of a juicer isn’t the brand name, what color its is, or even how much the juicer costs. It is in the method of juicing. There are three distinct juicing methods these juicers use. Mastication is one of these main methods. It is also one of the most popular.
How Does A Masticating Juicer Work?
Mastication is a process by which food is sliced, crushed, and ground by teeth. This increases the surface area of the food, allowing for easier breakdown of it’s fibers. This is more commonly referred to as chewing. A masticating juicer uses this “chewing” process to breakdown the fibers of the produce. The resulting pulp is then pressed, sepatating the pulp and allowing the juice to flow.
Masticating juicers can be further broken down into two separate categories. These are categorized by the way in which these juicers “chew” the produce. The most common masticating juicers use the single auger method. An auger is similar to a drill bit. As the produce is fed into the machine, the auger rotates, taking bites out of the food. The spacing between the auger’s blades becomes increasingly smaller down it’s length. As the produce moves down the length of the auger, it gets broken down into a pulp. This resulting pulp is pressed onto a screen wich allows only the juice to pass through.
Some commercial juicing machines use a dual auger or gear system, and they are called triturating juicers. Trituration is a way of breaking a substance down to its elemental parts and is commonly used in homogenizing mixtures. Some people consider these juicing machines to be their own separate category. However, these machines are still using the “chewing” method to break down the produce, so they are still categorized as a masticating juicer.
Twin Gear Masticating Juicers
Triturating, or twin gear juicers are the most expensive type of juicers, but they offer the most benefits. These juicers are the most efficient commercial juicer machine on the market. They operate by pressing food between two interlocking roller gears. Due to the high amount of compression from these stainless steel gears, triturating juicers can extract a large amount of juice from the produce. This pressure ruptures the plant cell walls that other types of juicers don’t, thus releasing higher quality nutrients with the juice. These juicing machines can also homogenize to make baby foods, fruit sorbets, and nut butters. Many offer attachments for making rice cakes and even pasta.
Is A Masticating Juicer Right For You?
Both types of masticating juicers opperate at a much lower speed than the well known centrifugal juicer. This allows for much less foam. Foam can be a major contributer in oxidating the juice. There is also very little frictional heat. Heat damages and destroys vital vitamins and nutrients that juicing is meant to preserve. The low speed at which these juicing machines rotate can also be considered a draw back. Masticating juicers take nearly twice as long to juice the produce than does a centrifugal juicer, but the juice yield tends to be higher.
As with any commercial juicer machine, the main goal is to provide a high level of nutrition to the person using the machine. No matter style of juicer a person picks, they have to actually use it in order to receive the benefits of juicing. The style they choose ultimately boils down to what works for them. The result of any commercial juicer machine is always the same. Liquid nutrition.
Written by Tom Webb+
