Electric fork zaps a salty taste to your tongue without the sodium
If you love salt but you're worried about your sodium intake, a new futuristic fork could save your life.
This week, a two-day trial was conducted at a restaurant in Tokyo offering a salt-free five-course meal to patrons. The star of the show was an "electro fork" that can send a salty taste to your taste buds when its button is depressed.
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The salty taste is triggered by a current generated by the utensil, and the fork is able to mimic sour, bitter and metallic taste sensations. A sweet taste is sorely missing however -- bad news for dessert fans.
A patron at the restaurant said he was surprised at how convincing the salty taste was:
The fork was developed by researchers at Tokyo University, and the restaurant pop-up was put together by advertising firm J. Walter Thompson's Japanese division.
The pop-up, in the Higashi-Azabu district, follows an earlier trial of the pop-up two weeks ago in another restaurant at Setagaya, in Tokyo.
JWT told Mashable the team is planning a third pop-up some time in the future, but hasn't nailed down dates yet.
Sadly, the fork isn't available for retail, so you'll only get to try it at the pop-up in Japan.
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Topics Health
Victoria Ho is Mashable's Asia Editor, based in Singapore. She previously reported on news and tech at The Business Times, TechCrunch and ZDNet. When she isn't writing, she's making music with her band
