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Since it’s January, health is at the top of a lot of people’s minds. We all have our own ways of approaching new health habits, but if your resolution is to eat healthier, I just tried a gadget at CES 2025 that might be able to help.
Did I ever think that my career would involve demoing a product called the Electric Salt Spoon? Certainly not, but here we are. Developed by Kirin, the Electric Salt Spoon can make food taste saltier than it is using a weak electric current that shocks your tongue as you slurp stews and soups. In theory, you should be able to use less salt in your food without compromising much on taste.
Although the spoon in its current iteration is way too chunky to use on a daily basis comfortably, I gave it a spin, err, sip.
Once powered on, the electric salt spoon offers four levels of “saltiness” (a.k.a. electric current strength). The team representing the Electric Salt Spoon suggested I use level 3, so I toggled the control button three times and dug in.
First, I sampled a bowl of miso soup in the old-fashioned way — a soup bowl straight to lips — as a control. It tasted decent, but I do tend to like my food on the salty side. Then, I gripped the Electric Salt Spoon, making sure my hand made contact with the metal base on the back, scooped up some of the broth, and brought it to my mouth to close the current. It’s recommended to hold the spoon for a few seconds for the effect to take place, and sure enough, towards the end of my spoonful, I noticed a faint tinging that made the soup taste saltier.
It was a weird experience, to say the least, and I couldn’t shake the fact that I was basically electrocuting my tongue for the sake of making food taste slightly better.
But hey, if eating less salt is a priority for you, the Electric Salt Spoon is the type of product to keep on your radar. It’s already on sale in Japan for a little over the equivalent of $100, though Kirin is hoping to bring the product to more countries soon.
