Juicer

"The Juicer" redirects here. For the professional wrestler, see Art Barr.

A juicer is a tool for extracting juice from fruits, vegetables, or wheatgrass. This is known as juicing.

Citrus juicer

The Professional Zaksenberg Juicer

A manual citrus juicer

A citrus juicer is used for squeezing juice from soft-centered, citrus fruits (orange, lemon, lime, grapefruit). It has a conical ridged center. Centering the halves of fruit with their cut-side down over the juicer, a user presses the fruit down and turns the fruit back and forth to extract juice, discarding the fruit afterwards. An early citrus juicer was invented in 1928 by Isaac Zaksenberg in Jaffa, Palestine (today's Israel) (see picture). Patent 968344 was issued in 1910 for a citrus juicer that inventor Leslie Hackney described as "having a corrugated center similar to the squeezers now in general use".

A hand-held kitchen utensil version is known as a "lemon reamer", "citrus reamer," or simply a "reamer." Electric versions exist.

Juice extractor

A juice extractor is a machine that mechanically separates juice from the solid part (pulp) of most fruits, vegetables, leafy greens, and herbs. The pulp is usually discarded, but can also be used in muffins and breads or composting.

Most juice extractors are electric, which requires less effort than their manual counterparts. A juicer differs from a blender: a juicer separates the juice from the pulp.

There are three main types of juicer: centrifugal juicers use blades and a sieve to separate juice from pulp; masticating juicers that 'chew' fruit to a pulp before squeezing out the juice; and, triturating juicers that have twin gears to first crush fruit and then press it.

Masticating and triturating juicers can also juice wheatgrass unlike centrifugal juicers that cannot break the fibers of the grass.

The single auger masticating juicer uses a profiled screw style moulding to compact and crush fruit and vegetable matter against a static screen allowing juice to flow through the screen while pulp is expelled through a separate outlet.

Twin gear triturating machines are usually the most expensive juicers offering the best juice yield. Twin gear juicers employ two metal counter rotating gears to crush the juicing fodder. The precise tolerance of the gears allows the juice to flow through the gap between the gears while the large pulpy matter passes along the top of the gears and is discharged.

Centrifugal juicer

A centrifugal juicer cuts up the fruit or vegetable with a flat cutting blade. It then spins the produce at a high speed (3,000-14,000 RPMs) to separate the juice from the pulp.

Nutrition

Fruits and vegetables have powerful nutritional properties that can help people with many types of health problems. Juicing can contain concentrated amounts of phytochemicals and antioxidants, living enzymes and vitamins, substances that fight cancer, and substances that reduce inflammation and pain.

See also

• Lemon squeezer
• Wheatgrass
• Vegetable juice
• Blender