Until now, we have sold bentos in a limited area, but in 2022 we started selling frozen bentos. In making frozen bentos, it was imperative to create lunches that would be delicious for our customers. However, when bentos are frozen, they tend to lose their flavor. We tried various freezing machines, but the Proton Freezer was the one that could reproduce the freshly made taste. We decided to install the Proton Freezer because we were convinced that it would be able to deliver the taste of Numazu's bentos to households throughout Japan in a form comparable to room temperature bentos.

I was particularly surprised by the rice. With other freezers, freezing was unstable or the rice became dry when defrosting, but with the Proton freezer, the rice was not dry and retained its freshness. The chefs who tested the prototype gave their approval, saying the taste and texture are perfect. In the process of marketing the frozen bento, we made some changes to the ingredients and packaging that were not suitable for freezing, but we tried to maintain the same form as the bento sold at room temperature, and currently we sell four types of bento as frozen bento.

Before introducing Proton, we were skeptical about whether we could really produce delicious frozen lunches. However, after confirming the actual quality, we realized that it was a good decision to introduce Proton. Our company had hoped that many people would enjoy Tochuken's bentos, and we are very happy that we were able to make that a reality.