Karinto – a fried dough fritter traditionally coated with brown sugar – has deep cultural roots in Japan. Over the past five to six years, Asahi Seika has developed a reformulated version that has become its bestseller domestically.
Traditional karinto has a distinctive crisp texture and sweet crunchy mouthfeel, which the firm maintains with its proprietary coating technique that also extends shelf life.
Same crunch but longer lasting with more flavours
Longer shelf life is a key differentiator for the company’s karinto compared with traditional versions, which typically last only around three months – a constraint for overseas distribution.
By applying a caramelisation process and using nitrogen-flushed packaging, the firm says it has extended shelf life to between six and twelve months, depending on flavour.
“When we caramelise sugar, it fully coats the product and helps prevent oxidation. If you look at the dough after frying, you can see tiny holes, but once it’s coated – especially with brown sugar syrup – it’s completely covered with a thick layer. The caramel-coated version is similar, but for some reason it lasts even longer. We believe this is due to the coating technique and the caramelisation process. The nitrogen in the packaging also helps,” Morishita explained.
To further improve the taste experience, Morishita has also introduced flavour variants for the firm’s Karinto range.
“We’re offering a modern take on karinto. The street-food flavours are the most popular. After travelling to different countries and conducting research, we found that consumers tend to prefer flavours like sweet potato, caramel, and coffee,” Morishita said.
The flavour strategy reflects growing research suggesting that flavour choice can shape how texture and mouthfeel are perceived.
This aligns with findings published in Comprehensive Reviews in Food Science and Food Safety, which suggest that mouthfeel arises from the integration of physical texture and flavour-related sensory inputs. Given that flavour perception combines taste, smell, and mouthfeel, this integration may influence how attributes such as crunchiness are perceived.
In a separate study published in Appetite, researchers have also highlighted the role of auditory cues when consuming crunchy foods, finding that louder eating sounds are associated with greater freshness perceptions. Researchers also noted that around 70% of new snack products reference “crunch” or “crunchy” in their naming or descriptions.
Similarly, Morishita highlighted the firm’s crisp texture on its packaging.
Sold under the brand name Fingys, the snack is designed to be more memorable and accessible to overseas consumers.
“Originally, the product was called ‘karinto sweets’, but people outside Japan don’t know what karinto is. That’s why we decided to call it Fingys so that people can remember it more easily because they relate it to their fingers,” said Morishita.
“The packaging also describes it as ‘crispy karinto cookies’, and hopefully, as people become more familiar with the product, they’ll also come to understand what karinto is,” said Morishita.
Morishita said the decision to expand overseas was shaped both by personal experience and longer-term demographic concerns in Japan.
“I lived in the US when I was younger. At the time, I shared our products – it’s a family business – with friends there, and they kept asking me, ‘Where can I buy this? I really like it.’ I didn’t know what to tell them. That was about 30 years ago, and it stayed with me,” said Morishita.
“Another factor is that Japan’s population is shrinking, which honestly scares me. Many Japanese companies have more than 100 years of history like ours, and there’s a strong belief in longevity, of passing businesses on to the next generation. That’s very much part of the Japanese mindset.
“So when I think about how much the population is declining, it makes me feel that we need to look beyond Japan.”
The firm is currently focused on regional expansion, with a near-term goal of entering the Singapore market. It xpects to price 35g packs at around SGD4 (USD3.15).
