By Tom Bateman
TOKYO (Reuters) – Japanese beverage giant Kirin Holdings will begin selling an electrified spoon that researchers say could promote healthier eating by enhancing salty taste without extra sodium.
The product’s launch on Monday marks the first commercialization of technology that last year won the Ig Nobel Prize, which honors unusual and eccentric research.
Kirin will sell just 200 of its electric salt spoons online for 19,800 yen ($127) this month and a limited run at a Japanese retailer in June, but hopes to reach 1 million users worldwide within five years . Overseas sales will begin next year.
The spoon, made of plastic and metal, was developed in partnership with Meiji University professor Homei Miyashita, who previously demonstrated the taste-enhancing effect on prototype electric chopsticks. The effect works by passing a weak electrical field from the spoon to concentrate sodium ion molecules on the tongue and increase the perception of the salty taste of the food.
Kirin, which is pivoting to health care from its traditional beer business, said the technology has particular significance in Japan, where the average adult consumes about 10 grams of salt a day, double the recommended amount. by the World Health Organization.
Excessive sodium consumption is linked to an increased incidence of hypertension, strokes and other diseases.
“Japan has a food culture that tends to favor savory flavors,” said Kirin researcher Ai Sato. “Japanese people as a whole need to reduce the amount of salt they consume, but it can be difficult to give up what we are used to eating.
“That’s what led us to develop this electric spoon.”
Weighing 60 grams, the spoon works with a rechargeable lithium battery.
Miyashita and his co-creator, Hiromi Nakamura, received the Ig Nobel Prize in Nutrition from immunologist and Nobel Prize winner Peter Doherty in an online ceremony last year.
($1 = 155.8400 yen)
(Reporting by Tom Bateman; writing by Rocky Swift; editing by Chang-Ran Kim and Susan Fenton)
