Narayana Peesapaty was dismayed when he realized that plastic cutlery is usually not disposed of but reused. He checked one such spoon that was cleaned for reuse and found it greasy while it also had the smell of food. He also knew that plastic cannot decompose and pollutes the environment. Therefore, after much consideration, he came up with a good alternative to plastic cutlery- edible cutlery.

The edible cutlery which sells under the brand Bakey’s is made mixing jowar (sorghum) with rice flour and wheat flour. The reason why he uses millets like jowar is that rice cultivation consumes a large quantity of water and he wants farmers to start growing millets instead of rice. Besides, jowar has a mild flavor and can allow different flavors to mix into it.

It took Peesapaty and his wife one whole year and several kilograms of millets to finally arrive at the right recipe for the spoons. The spoon is tough enough to even stir and spoon up soups. The crisp spoons taste good and also comes in different flavors made with sugar, ginger- cinnamon, garlic, mint and even carrot and beetroot.

Peesapaty was overwhelmed by the feedback of his product from the world over and is trying his best to meet the ever-increasing demand for the edible cutlery. The cutlery is environment-friendly. Even if one doesn’t consume the edible spoons and discards it, it gets decomposed within three days. On the occasion of World Environment Day, Peesapaty was awarded the Swachh Bharat Award by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2018. All praise to Narendra Peesapaty for coming up with a great, healthy alternative to the chemical-based plastic.

Image Source: World Atlas