Ikura - sauce delivery system. No more small sachets.

Sauces incorporated into the takeaway food in the small edible spheres which pop in your mouth when you chew. No more sachets needed.

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Written by Irina Ankudinova

Updated on 15:15, Jul 28, 2017

Sushi Rolls with incorporated Ikura Soya Sauce Spheres

Ikura Soya Sauce Spheres

Take away Sushi Rolls - no more mess, no extra action, just fireworks of taste

KETCHUP IKURA

No small sachet

Adding Ikura Spheres during preparation

Spherephication robot prototype - Lava Lamp

Sauces make our food delicious, moist and exciting. Small sauce packaging not. Please, meet IKURA - sauce caviar - sauce delivery right into your mouth avoiding naughty sachet and plastic containers.

How does it work?

Sauce, for example, soya sauce is spheriphicated ( enclosed into the small 2-3 mm sphere of edible material such as sodium alginate/agar-agar/starch/gelatin).

Soya sauce spheres incorporated into the product during preparation - mixed with rice when sushi is made.

When you eat your sushi sauce bubbles popped while you chew. You get your sauce. You get new gastronomy experience and no waste! Your hands are clean, no extra action - perfect for on the go.

Other sauces such as ketchup/mayonnaise can be enclosed in bubbles and served with chips. Hummus/guacamole can be enclosed in larger bubbles to avoid plastic packaging/ peel offs altogether.

All suggested substances are edible and easily sourced/available. Spherification is a proven method widely used in the pharma and food industry. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spherification

Shperiphication can be design done by a robot in the presence of the customers as advertisement/ entertainment feature.

Using algae products in the light of developing 3D ocean farming is very perspective as locally sourced raw materials lower the price, create local jobs and reduce carbon footprint.

Try it, it's fun!

Idea Title

Ikura - sauce delivery system. Bye-bye plastic fish.

Company / Organization Name

Green Rhino

Where are you / your team located?

Cambridge

How does this Idea redesign unrecyclable small format plastic items that often end up as waste?

Ikura replaces plastic packaging with edible and compostable spheres. Ikura sauce spheres can be delivered to the food cafes in bulk recyclable/reusable packaging or made on site from liquid sauce by a robot so visitors can see the process for the relaxation/entertainment purposes

Which use cases does your Idea apply to?

Although IKURA falls under Case 1 - sachet for the liquid consumer products, Trevor and Benjamin with kids, Michaela, Nigel and Lucas would be the one who will most likely come across small sauce packaging in their daily life.

In what geographical context or area does your Idea plan to operate / solve?

Ikura applies to all locations where take away food is sold.

How do you envision scaling up your Idea?

The facility to produce the chemicals can be already present locally as it is widely used for pharma/food/textile industry. Facilities to produce spheres needs to be developed - where can be two options. It can be one small factory delivering to local food outlet or spherification robots placed in the food outlets itself ( only sauce and gelling agent delivered to the food shops). Cost as an obstacle needs to be investigated as well as gently introducing customers to the new way of consumption.

At what stage of development is your Idea?

Research & Early Testing: You are exploring an idea, gathering inspiration and information needed to test it with real users.
Prototyping: You have conducted some small tests or experiments with prospective users and will continue developing idea through these tests.

Please describe how becoming a Top Idea and working with the Think Beyond Plastics Accelerator Program will help to accelerate your solution.

Becoming a Top Idea will help us achieve following goals 1) Further prototyping - find the most suitable gelling agent and test how it works for other sauces (ketchup, mayo) -- optimise spherification process to improve output - find the best taste and texture - test the idea with the consumers/cafes 2) Estimate economic viability of the solution 3) Search for potential partners / investors

Please describe from where your Idea emerged

I love sushi and prefer them guilt-free. No matter how cute the little plastic fish is, I was always in search for a better option. This is how Ikura and some of my other ideas were born.