A former groundwater researcher in India has developed a line of edible utensils called Bakeys. Developed in 2010 by Narayana Peesapaty, the spoons are made with a mix of sorghum, rice, and wheat flours and baked until hard and dry. According to Peesapaty, 40 billion plastic utensils are used just in the United States each year; worldwide, the number grows to 16 times that. With the energy it takes to produce one plastic utensil, Bakeys can produce 100 sorghum-based spoons.
The spoons do not degrade within liquids due to the high amount of sorghum, but they are not so hard that you can’t bite into them. In addition, because of the very low moisture content, the spoons remain at their ultimate crispness for up to two years. They are vegan, preservative-free, trans fat-free, dairy-free, and come in nine flavors: sugar, ginger-cinnamon, ginger-garlic, cumin, celery, black pepper, mint-ginger, and carrot-beetroot. And if consumers decide to forgo eating the spoon, they can rest assured knowing the spoons don’t have specific requirements for degradation and are therefore able to degrade in any outside environment.
In terms of cost, Peesapaty believes he can get Bakeys down to the price of plastic spoons. Once he starts selling in larger volumes, he plans on working with farmers and sourcing materials from them directly, which will help drive down the cost of production. With this goal in mind, the company launched a Kickstarter campaign with an initial objective of raising $20,000 in order to upscale production and expand the product offerings to chopsticks and forks. Running through April 17, the campaign has already raised more than $207,000.
