Flight travel can be a cosmic yawn of boredom or an opportunity to think creatively. For Narayana Peesapaty, Research scientist at the International Crop Research Institute for Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), the in-flight time served plenty of food for thought. By the time the plane landed, Narayana Peesapaty had decided to make his in-flight idea of ‘edible cutlery’ a reality.

Narayana Peesapaty of BK Environmental Innovations Private Limited, a Hyderabad start-up company makes Edible Cutlery, using a mixture of sorghum jowar (corn), rice and wheat flour as an alternative to the environmentally-detrimental plastic and wood cutlery. According to Peesapaty, the sale of plastic cutlery growing at a rate of 30 per cent is generating significant non-biodegradable waste and contributing to overflowing landfills.

“Edible Cutlery is the only solution that provides the same convenience of disposable forks, spoons and chopsticks,” says Narayana Peesapaty.He shares his experience with www.nanomaya.com about his innovative product.

Nm: Why did you think of Edible Cutlery? Can you describe the Eureka moment?

NP: The concept of Edible Cutlery was born about 5 years ago, while returning from Ahmedabad to Hyderabad. Post Kandahar, in-flight catering most often carried plastic cutlery. Plastic cutlery being not quite convenient and thinking about the huge garbage each plane load brings in, I was wondering could not be there any alternative? It was a two hour long journey from Ahmedabad to Hyderabad and with nothing else to think about, I set myself thinking about and by the time I landed, the EUREKA moment happened.

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