A Japanese company has designed a spoon that can make dishes taste better without having to salt them too much.
A bland dish happens more often than you think, and a Japanese company, Kirin – known for the beer of the same name – has decided to tackle the problem head on. Spotted by Reuters, the product is surprising: it is a spoon which has a taste enhancer tech functionality.
The company’s goal is to make it easier to eliminate salt from your diet. To do this, the spoon has electrodes which will send small electrical pulses to your tongue to give you a salty taste.
This small electric current helps to “wake up” the sodium molecules naturally present on the tongue, which therefore has the effect of making you believe that a dish is saltier than it actually is. In any case, this is what its manufacturer says, who teamed up with Professor Homei Miyashita from the School of Science and Technology at Meiji University, in Japan, to develop its product.
After several tests involving chopsticks attached to electrical wires, internal studies demonstrated an increase of up to 50% in salty taste.
Kirin nevertheless explains that this spoon, which will be produced in only 200 copies – initially, is not suitable for everyone. People with a pacemaker or heart rate monitor, who are allergic to metals or have bleeding disorders should not use it. Just like those suffering from malignant tumors or serious cognitive disorders.
The price of this spoon is announced at around 117 euros. Kirin, however, plans to offer more copies over the next five years, potentially reaching a million customers.
