Japanese drinks giant Kirin Holdings has launched an electrified spoon that researchers say can promote healthier eating. The spoon accentuates the salty taste, which means that there will be less salt in the food.
According to Reuters, the product was launched on Monday, May 20, 2024, and marks the first commercialization of the technology that won last year an Ig Nobel Prize, which honors unusual and whimsical research.
Kirin will sell just 200 electric salt spoons online this month and a limited run at a Japanese retailer in June, but hopes to have a million users globally within five years. Overseas sales will begin next year. A spoon will be sold for 117 euros.
The technology is particularly important in Japan, where an average adult consumes about 10 grams of salt a day, double the amount recommended by the World Health Organization.
“The spoon, made of plastic and metal, was developed together with Meiji University professor Homei Miyashita, who had previously demonstrated the taste-enhancing effect in prototype electric chopsticks. The effect works by passing a weak electric field through the spoon to concentrate the molecules of sodium ions on the tongue to increase the perceived saltiness of food”claims the cited publication.
“Japan has a food culture that tends to favor salty flavors. Japanese people as a whole need to cut back on salt, but it can be difficult to break away from what we're used to eating. That led us to develop this electric spoon”said researcher Kirin Ai Sato.
The electric spoon that helps you eat healthy PHOTO: capture
Weighing 60 grams, the spoon is powered by a rechargeable lithium battery.
Miyashita and co-creator Hiromi Nakamura were awarded the Ig Nobel Prize in Nutrition by immunologist and Nobel laureate Peter Doherty in an online ceremony opens a new tab last year.
