The process of cooking food certainly reduces the content of nutrients and most of vital vitamins present in food. On the other hand, raw or unprocessed fruits, vegetables, sprouts and nuts are healthy. The consumption of these foods improves energy level, aids digestion, improves complexion and reduces the risk of many diseases.
Despite the benefits it offers, it’s not practical for most of us to keep taking only raw food comprising of fruits and vegetables. Moreover, there are many who wouldn’t like the taste of raw food. Innovative cooking techniques and equipments, to a great extent, help consumption of such foods for those who don’t like the taste of raw food. There are many ways for making raw food easily digestible without making it lose its nutritious content. The easy availability of devices like blender, mixer, juicer, dehydrator and food processor solves the problem.
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Of these, a juicer is used for extraction of juices from fruits and vegetables. This equipment extracts juice even from the skin and peels of fruits and vegetables, giving a nourishing juice. It extracts juice from the stems of vegetables too. The technology and processing involved in juicers is different than that of blenders, which are referred to as food processors these days. The job of a juicer is very simple. It just has to extract juice and reject pulp to deliver healthy nutritious juice, while retaining vital components like proteins, vitamins, enzymes and antioxidants, which are known to fight against cancer. They also help in reducing irritation, swelling, soreness and pain due manual blending. But the constituent of different foods is heterogeneous and you can’t have one single system of inbuilt mechanical components in containers for processing of different food items.
Cooking in your kitchen becomes a pleasure with the addition of a food processor that really takes off a lot of burden and saves time, while adding to the quality of cooking. The processes of chopping, grinding, juicing, blending, cutting and squeezing are of great help indeed. Though manually operated juicers are available for extraction of juices of citrus fruits, electrical appliances are more efficient and save a lot of time and labor. These days you find most of the juice extractors to be electrically operated. The electric juicer naturally requires less man power and efforts. The modern food processors that allow the process of blending nearly replace the juicers.
The food processor is provided with a variety of blades in different designs that perform different actions on raw or cooked foods and are rotated by an electric motor to crush foodstuff to pieces. Its bowl has a rotating blade fixed in the centre at the bottom of the bowl. That’s the common design world over for domestic kitchen blenders. The design of commercial blenders is slightly different with a more powerful induction motor and the shaft is fixed to rotate vertically inside the bowl. Usually, the bowl is made of transparent plastic and the cutting blades are fixed at its bottom.
For the purpose of safety, most of the food processors are provided with top cover. In some of the models the top cover is further fitted with a feed tube that can be fixed to a bowl. This is the tube that makes way for addition of food components that need to be shredded, crushed or sliced to pieces or powders. This tube offers the dual function of a chute also. Now, if the lid is not closed properly or the bowl is left loose, it may cause spilling of foodstuff or damage the skin or even the equipment. The new design of the latest models of food processors takes excellent care of this limitation. The new design wouldn’t let the electric motor start if the lid or the bowl were not properly fixed to its respective place.
The utility of modern food processors has been further improved by the introduction of coffee grinder, bread maker and value added blenders that further ease the process of cooking, and save lot of time and effort, while the food remains healthier.
Multi tasking food processors make a better choice than juicer. That’s because the present kitchens, domestic or commercial, involve shredding or slicing of vegetables, sprouts, nuts or spices as constituents of different recipes. All the modern appliances are designed to lend a helping hand for regular requirements of cooking. Further, the cost effectiveness of these appliances also plays an important role in their appropriate selection. On comparing the features of a juicer with that of a food processor, one finds that the latter is a better equipment to have in the kitchen. It is because the food processor is a multi utility device, can be used more often and lasts longer. Economically, juicer is not as viable, as it can be used for performing one activity only, and that too may not be on a regular basis. However, juicer would certainly make a very viable choice economically for any commercial catering project or establishment.
