The Wall Street Journal reports that in China, Baidu, a web services company has unveiled ‘smart chopsticks,’ called Kuaisou in Chinese. These newfangled chopsticks will enlighten you about what’s on your plate.
In the future, these modern utensils will be able to tell you the nutritional value of your food, freshness and whether it’s safe to eat, PH levels, temperature, energy value, as well as the origin of oils and water.
The smart chopsticks are linked to a smartphone app. The company has posted a video demonstrating how the utensils can distinguish between olive oil and recycled cooking oil. Hopefully they would be able to tell whether it’s pure olive oil or mixed with other vegetable oils.
Baidu has been inspired by Google products in the past but they are confident that ‘smart chopsticks’ are distinctly Chinese. They would certainly help in a country renowned for food scandals; toxic milk spewed from dairies and glow-in-the-dark meat made headlines in 2011. This year, a chef was caught painting food to make it appear more appetising, and most recently, noodles were laced with opium.
The product isn’t ready for assembly-line production yet so a price hasn’t been established.
Could these be worth their weight in genuine truffle oil and worth the wait for the South African version?
Skip the chopsticks and try your own Chinese feast with honey and soy pork stir-fry and vegetable spring rolls.