Do Eat - Edible Tableware Created by Belgian Designers

Forget about Dirty Dishes – Belgian Designers Create Edible Tableware

By Sumitra on November 13th, 2014 Category: Foods

A couple of Belgian designers have come up with a new range of edible food containers that are eco-friendly, taste good, and most importantly, save people from the misery of doing dishes.

The young entrepreneurs – Helene Hoyois and Thibaut Gilquin – got the idea after hosting a party one night, after which they found themselves facing a mountain of dirty dishes to that needed cleaning. Instinctively, Thibaut turned to Helene and asked: “And if we eat the dishes?”

He was only joking at first, but the duo soon started to take the idea seriously. After a few trials, they finally managed to come up with a viable concept – containers made from a combination of potato starch, water and oil. The material is tough enough to retain all sorts of foods and sauces, but is also easily digestible.

“They are biodegradable, and have neutral flavor that complements both sweet and savory ingredients, and are also oven safe,” explained 25-year-old Helen.

Once they perfected the material, Helene and Thibaut pooled all their savings into producing the first prototype. When that proved successful, they received financial support from a corporation called Wallonia Creative to set up a company called ‘Do Eat’. They now have a small office in a building about 30 kilometers away from Brussels, with over 30 employees.

Helene explained that although they’ve managed to create a unique project, they still have a lot of work to do. “We’ve created something that did not exist, but we must move faster than the competition to innovate all the time with new products,” she said.

For now they’ve only made edible food containers, but they soon plan to add a complete range with glasses, cutlery, bowls. They also want to make other edible objects – like a calendar that can be savored every day. “We are also developing communication strategies such as grocery delivery brochures to attract people and publicize the project,” Helene said. And they want to expand their products to other countries like Spain, France, and Switzerland.