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Eat with the spoon, then eat that too: UAE company creates edible cutlery in novel push to go green

CEO Pooja Ravinath is even looking into exploring collaborations with airlines, and is already in talks with Emirates, Saudi Airlines and Oman Air

A UAE-based company has come up with an innovative solution for a non-sustainable practice: edible cutlery. Pooja Ravinath, CEO of Green Aura, the company behind ‘Eatlery’, spoke to Khaleej Times about the inspiration behind it.

“We wanted to create a substitute for plastic or wooden spoons. The best part of edible cutlery is that even if you don’t like it and decide to throw it, there’ll be no waste left in the environment because it will completely decompose in less than 30 days,” she said.

She said that the completely vegan, baked cutlery is made of a cookie-dough like mix of cereal grains and that it is stable with cold or hot food for more than 30 minutes. “The cutlery doesn’t disintegrate while you’re eating soup, rice or curry. It also doesn’t affect the taste of your food until you bite into it,” she said. The spoons are even sturdier than some plastic ones, she added.

The current range, which has been released in the UAE markets only 3 months ago, include two sizes of a ‘sweet’ spoon, a salty large spoon, a sweet stirrer, a small ketchup-flavoured chip fork, and a large chocolate-flavoured spoon. The ketchup used in the chip fork is made from tomato extract with no artificial colourings or flavours. “Only when you eat it will you taste the tangy ketchup,” she explained.

The savoury ‘spoon’ is for rice and soup, and the sweet ones could be used for cereal or icecream for instance. Pooja said that many people have asked her if they could also make plates, but that it’s not something that makes sense for her. “If you make a plate, no one will eat it because it’s heavy. After you finish your meal, you won’t eat a whole plate,” she said.

The ingredients of Eatlery include cereal grains, and the sweet ones are sweetened with sugar that comes from date extract and caramelised brown sugar. “We’re trying to use only good ingredients while making them, and we’re always trying to enhance the taste,” she said, adding that they are all nut-free, palm-oil free and are certified vegan. They are done through a patented technology from Germany, and are manufactured in India.

While most people still don’t know about them, Pooja said that those who find out are stunned by the concept. When it comes to pricing, she added that they are trying to be as competitive as possible, but that the ingredients are a deciding factor. A pack of 10 large spoons sells for around Dh20, and a pack of 30 chip forks sell for the same price.

Pooja said that customers have found the spoons convenient, and delicious too. “My 6-year-old son, for example, eats this as an after-school snack,” she said.

Currently, she is looking into exploring collaborations with airlines, and is already in talks with a few regional ones like Emirates, Saudi Airlines and Oman Air. “We’ve done single-wrapped cutlery for airlines. It makes sense for them, because the consumption of fuel is based on the weight carried from one destination to the other,” she said.

The eatlery range does have its limitations, however. For instance, no knives or forks have been done, and the stirrers are short. “The problem is breakage; we’re working on solving this and developing solutions,” Pooja said.

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