It all began when groundwater researcher and Bakeys founder Narayana Peesapathy decided to run his finger on a plastic spoon he got for himself along with a meal of idli and sambar, and realized that the spoon was still greasy and seemed to be reused. But that wasn’t the only reason why he decided to make edible cutlery. Apart from the lack of cleanliness that poses a threat, plastic cutlery also inherently has a number of poisonous and cancerous chemicals that seep into the food when used. This knowledge compelled Peesapathy to come up with a healthy alternative.

The researcher’s solution to this problem is as simple as it is brilliant.

Peesapathy founded Bakeys Food Pvt Ltd in 2011 to help produce edible cutlery as replacement to plastic cutlery.

Not only is plastic cutlery reused in most public eateries and a source of cancerous chemicals, they are also non-biodegradable. And about 120 billion pieces of plastic cutlery is disposed every year. In a bid to cure this ailment, Peesapathy founded a food company that produces edible cutlery (spoons, forks, and even chopsticks) made out of dried milllets, rice and wheat.

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With increasing units of this edible cutlery, Peesapathy hopes to also increase the farming production of millets.

Increased farming of millets and the production of the edible cutlery working directly in tandem would not only aid farmers but also drastically decrease the price of this product down close to its plastic counterpart. And, of course you could either eat the cutlery or just dispose it off, since it’s biodegradable.

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Check out this video feature by the good folks at TheBetterIndia about the Bakeys edible revolution:

This is actually really cool.

H/T: The Better India