Bakey’s, which offers the spoons in three flavors, has faced challenges with prototypes that were too fragile or small. Eventually, in 2014, the company found optimal shapes and material compositions. “None of the shapes of cutlery we make will break or dissolve in any hot or cold liquid, as it has no fat content,” says Bakey’s Pradnya Keskar. “It will break only when pressed harder in the wrong angle or just for fun if someone drops it on the floor to deliberately break it.”
According to Bakey’s, 120 billion pieces of plastic cutlery are disposed in India every year, and studies have shown India is among the largest contributors to plastic ocean waste. The company has not yet entered commercial production, as the “investment is huge,” Keskar tells Scroll.
Bakey’s is not alone; Tokyo’s Marushige Confectionary is making edible chopsticks from igusa, while India’s Defence Food Research Laboratory has also been developing edible cutlery for use by the nation’s armed forces. Scroll also notes a kitchen appliance available in the United States called the Edible Spoon Maker that works like a waffle iron.