On the first night of CES 2025, Kirin Holdings, a Japanese company famous for beer and liquor, showed off a new electronic spoon that makes your food taste even saltier. The company says the spoon uses a weak electric current to concentrate sodium ion molecules in your food, adding stronger umami and salt flavors to low-sodium foods. A limited supply of the Electronic Salt Spoon goes on sale in Japan in 2024 for about $127 in American dollars, but Kirin hopes to sell the device around the globe in the coming years. The company claims this device can add “saltiness” to your food, without adding extra sodium. Many people tried some soups using Kirin spoons at CES Unveiled in Las Vegas. TechCrunch didn’t try it on its own, because there’s something about communal tech conference spoons that aren’t fun. One of the biggest crowds on the first night of CES 2025 was people trying to taste Kirin’s new spoon. The launch of Kirin’s spoon product marks the first commercialization of a technology that has won the 2023 Ig Nobel prize, a satirical award for extraordinary scientific research. The researchers behind it first published their thesis in 2011, but have since made spoons, forks, and chopsticks that pass electric current into food. Kirin says it made the spoon to help people consume less salt. This problem is particularly relevant in Japan, where the country’s adult population eats more than twice the intake recommended by the World Health Organization.
