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Last April developers at Meiji University in Japan said they had developed a pair of chopsticks that can make food taste saltier without actually adding salt. Now the university and Kirin Holdings are using a similar technology and applying it to spoons and bowls.
How does it work? Well, it uses a simple, mild electrical current to enhance the salty flavors of food. This works by passing a specific wavelength of electricity from the surface of the utensil to the food which keys into the ions such as sodium chloride that trigger our sense of saltiness. By doing this, these ions all get bunched together when they touch your tongue, for a heightened salty taste without actually adding any more salt.
Even better, these spoons and bowls are boasting the ability to make foods taste 1.5 times saltier, a marked improvement over the 30% boost the chopstick prototypes provided. There’s not much to dislike here, except for maybe how they look according to some online comments.
Good news for that last commenter, Kirin says that these utensils are on the verge of commercialization and should be available by next year. The products will be called Erekisoruto (エレキソルト) in Japanese, but Kirin hasn’t yet revealed how that will convert into English whether it’ll be “Elecsalt” or something fancier like “Elexolt.”
Link: Sora News 24