Limited electric spoons claiming to promote ‘healthier eating’ to sell for ₹10,000

The spoon, made of metal and plastic, claims to promote ‘heathier eating’. The manufacturer will sell just 200 units of this item.

Japanese drinks giant Kirin Holdings will start selling an electrified spoon that researchers claim can promote healthier eating by enhancing salty tastes without extra sodium.

An employee of Kirin Holdings demonstrates an electric spoon. (REUTERS)

Monday's product launch marks the first commercialisation of technology that last year won an Ig Nobel Prize, which honours unusual and whimsical 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 is hoping for 1 million users globally within five years. Sales overseas will start next year.

The spoon, made of plastic and metal, was co-developed with Meiji University professor Homei Miyashita, who previously demonstrated the taste-enhancing effect in prototype electric chopsticks. The effect works by passing a weak electric field from the spoon to concentrate sodium ion molecules on the tongue to enhance the perceived saltiness of the food.

Excess sodium intake is related to increased incidence of high blood pressure, strokes and other ailments.

"Japan has a food culture that tends to favour salty flavours," said Kirin researcher Ai Sato. "Japanese people as a whole need to reduce the amount of salt intake but it can be difficult to move away from what we're used to eating.

"That's what led us to develop this electric spoon."

Weighing 60 grams, the spoon runs on a rechargeable lithium battery.

Miyashita and his co-creator, Hiromi Nakamura, were presented with the Ig Nobel Nutrition Prize by immunologist and Nobel Prize laureate Peter Doherty in an online ceremony last year.