An electric salt spoon is making waves in Japan. The spoon is designed to send a weak electric current from its tip to concentrated sodium ion molecules on the tongue, making food eaten with the spoon taste salty without actually adding any salt.
The idea may seem far-fetched. After all, why would you need a spoon that makes your food taste saltier if you can just add your own salt? Apparently, the goal is to help people who are struggling to cut back on their salt intake do so. Given that excess salt intake has been linked to a variety of illnesses, including heart disease, it’s not all that surprising that researchers are looking for ways to improvise and approach the problem.
Image credit: Kirin
The electric salt spoon is manufactured and sold by Japanese company Kirin. The company says the spoon can be customized with four levels of saltiness, allowing users to adjust the saltiness to their liking. Sky News reports that the spoon was developed in collaboration with Professor Yoshiaki Miyashita of Meiji University.
Miyashita had previously worked on a prototype for electric chopsticks that could harness the same electric current, for which he was awarded the Ig Nobel Prize in Nutrition last year. The spoons were designed to help people reduce their salt intake without having to resort to bland foods – research often points out that problems arise when the salt concentration in meals becomes lower than what patients are accustomed to.
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The new electric salt spoon is powered by a rechargeable battery, so you’ll need to keep it plugged in and charging to enjoy its benefits. It’s unclear if a similar product will eventually make it to the Western market; for now, the spoon is only available through Kirin’s Japanese distributors.
