YAMASU Corporation, a manufacturer, distributor and shop operator of over 3,000 products, mainly “food” souvenirs from Chiba Prefecture, has succeeded in having the astringent peanut (peanut) skin used as an ingredient for black vinegar.

As part of its own SDG project, Y-SDGs, the company wondered if it would be possible to re-use the astringent peanut skin (the brown, thin-skinned part), which is produced in large quantities every day, only to be thrown away with the cooperation of the Department of Applied Life Science, Faculty of Horticulture, Chiba University.
At the present stage, it is still at the stage of rat experiments, but future research is expected to show that it is effective for weight loss. The completed peanut vinegar with astringent peel, ‘Magic Vinegar’, is now on sale at Bousou no Eki shops to rave reviews.

Made only from the astringent peel of peanuts grown in Chiba Prefecture, rice black vinegar and honey, the vinegar is recommended as a drinkable vinegar to be mixed with water or carbonated water, or with apple juice if you want a sweeter taste. It has little vinegar-specific twang, making it a versatile vinegar for a variety of uses, including chicken dishes and salad dressings. It provides tasty support for daily health.

YAMAS promotes its own SDGs project, Y-SDGs, and has been involved in sustainable initiatives in food, such as the sale of menma, which is unique to Chiba Prefecture and was born from the maintenance of bamboo forests. One of these projects is YAMASU, which makes many peanut products, and which focuses on the disposal of astringent peel.

It is very difficult to convert astringent peanuts into food products, and many companies have found it almost impossible to “eat and reuse” them, but we have been thinking every day about how we can make them tasty. Through a relationship with the Department of Applied Life Science, Faculty of Horticulture, Chiba University, we decided to cooperate in research on the “effect of black vinegar beverages containing extracts of rakkasei seed peel on improving sugar metabolism in high-fat diet-induced obese mice”, resulting in the creation of “Magic Vinegar”.

According to this study, in mice that drank vinegar made from peanut peel for 20 weeks, ‘improvements in obesity and abnormalities of glucose metabolism were observed’.