2024.10.14
The Reason Behind Their Focus on Ostrich Oil: Yoshinoya, a Japanese beef bowl restaurant, is making a serious entry into the beauty industry!
Famous for its beef bowls, Yoshinoya has announced its full-fledged entry into the cosmetics industry.
The brand name is "SPEEDIA." The key ingredient is not beef, which is synonymous with the company, but ostrich-derived ostrich oil.
We spoke with Tomoko Tsuji and Hiroko Neriki from Yoshinoya Holdings and SPEEDIA about the reason for venturing from the food industry into cosmetics, and the effects of ostrich oil.
PROFILE
Tomoko Tsuji
Yoshinoya Holdings Executive Officer, CTO of SPEEDIA Co., Ltd.
PROFILE
Hiroko Neriki
Head of Skincare Division, SPEEDIA Co., Ltd.
Recognizing the Potential of Ostriches & Establishing an In-House Farm
Your company, which has a strong image of beef, why did you start focusing on ostriches?
TsujiYoshinoya marks its 125th anniversary this year and enters the 56th year since the start of chain operations; our history has always been influenced by the circumstances surrounding beef.
While maintaining the quality of the beloved beef bowls, we concluded that to sustainably grow our business, it was necessary to diversify our types of livestock rather than relying solely on beef.
There was also the social issue of food supply. In light of various challenges such as population growth and climate change, we believed that to continue supporting people's health, we should avoid concentrating on a single food source and instead select a diverse range.
With rising prices of food and daily necessities, it's true that you needed to look beyond beef to maintain quality and pricing.
TsujiYes. Since the early 2000s, Yoshinoya has been addressing these issues and implementing various initiatives. For instance, we have been providing fried chicken as a secondary pillar next to our beef bowl and researching next-generation alternative meats.
It was during this time that Yoshinoya Holdings' representative, Yasutaka Kawamura, encountered ostrich meat. Upon tasting it, he found it very delicious, similar in taste to red beef, and it also demonstrated very high feed efficiency.
As someone with a background in nutritional functions, I was brought to Yoshinoya Holdings to promote differentiation strategies centered around health.
I have worked on projects like the “special health beef bowl” and the development of new lettuce varieties for plant factories, and now we have started looking into ostriches as one of the materials for differentiation strategies.
In 2017, to accelerate research towards higher value-added products, we began operating an ostrich farm. By having our own farm, we can seamlessly conduct production, breeding, and application research.
One of the discoveries from this research was the beauty effects of ostrich oil.
Beauty Effects of Ostrich Oil Discovered by Yoshinoya
What are the actual beauty effects of ostrich oil?
TsujiFirstly, ostrich oil has good skin compatibility because its melting point closely matches human body temperature. Many animal fats do not melt when applied to the skin; they remain solid because their melting points are higher than human body temperature. However, ostrich oil melts upon being applied to the skin.
Furthermore, the types of fatty acids in ostrich oil are similar to human sebum. Human sebum serves to keep moisture from evaporating from the skin. Therefore, ostrich oil is expected to serve the same purpose.
In fact, when comparing skin moisture levels before and after applying ostrich oil, we observed that the amount of moisture evaporation (the amount of moisture that evaporates through the stratum corneum) was reduced, and skin moisture levels increased.
One of the most notable effects is the promotion of the absorption of skin-beautifying ingredients. Cosmetics contain various beauty components, but there has not been much research into how well they penetrate the skin to exert their effects. Therefore, at SPEEDIA, we investigated which beauty ingredients become more absorbable when combined with ostrich oil.
For example, after applying ostrich oil to the skin, it was proven through experiments using human skin samples that the absorption amount of fat-soluble vitamin C derivatives, type I collagen, and ceramide-like substances increases.
Remarkably, a high booster effect of about 23 times was observed for niacinamide, which has gained attention as an anti-wrinkle ingredient. (Data from tests conducted using Franz cells)
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