Why Choose Food Research Lab's FRL as Your Food Product Development (FPD) Consultant and Partner?

There are several options in almost every product area in today’s market, and the difficulty is in coming up with unique items that stand out and connect with customers. Food Research Lab's Food Research Lab (FRL) takes a holistic approach to creating food and beverage products. We define, demographically target, and build effective goods through a sequential process for category selection and comprehension. The client can visit the lab to learn the process. We offer unlimited rounds of revisions to ensure customer satisfaction. The final product prototype, along with the documentation process, including the video (through email), will be shipped to the client, and in case the client is not satisfied with the video, a food technology consultant will visit the place for the product demo at the client’s costs.

What are the different forms that you deliver the Food Product Formulations?

The food industry is witnessing a new form of consumption. Keeping that in mind, we can formulate the products in the form of ready-to-eat, ready-to-drink, ready-to-mix, ready-to-serve, and ready-to-cook food products. We use ingredients that offer an added value to the development and improve its indulgence and sustainability in terms of its functional ingredients, plant-based food dyes, and natural preservatives with a clean label.

What are the sectors Food Research Lab cover?

We cover a wide range of sectors such as soups, sauces and dips, chips, tortillas, dry beverage powder, plant-based products, masalas, puddings, instant mixes and many more.

How is sensory testing been carried out?

Our sensory examination leads to the precise formulation and recipe recommendations. We develop data-driven design models based on sensory research and customer insights. The fact-based design methodology used by Food Research Lab reduces risk and gives our clients market confidence while cutting development time in half. With our dedicated sensory lab facility, our team takes satisfaction in creating and optimizing successful products in the marketplace, generating a favourable return on investment, and developing brand advocates.

Edible Cutlery

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EDIBLE CUTLERY

INTRODUCTION  

Plastic cutlery is a practical option, but also bad for health and the environment. Being a petroleum by-product, it contains carcinogens and poisons that are easily absorbed by humans. Because plastics take up a lot of space and clog landfills yearly, throwing away plastic cutlery is now dangerous for the environment because chemicals and carcinogens can leach into food through the natural ecosystem.
Even though plastics are widely used in our daily activities, it is imperative that we make efforts to replace plastics in our lifestyle to effectively reduce their usage and help create a cleaner, greener, and more sustainable environment [1].

Figure 1: Plastic cutlery contributes to a humongous amount of non-biodegradable waste [1].

Edible Cutlery 

Edible cutlery was designed to address the problem of plastics being used in disposable cutlery. In addition, it is organic, biodegradable and compostable and may be developed to be nutrient-rich.
Edible cutlery, a plant-based product, can be used to serve meals and consumed as it is. Since the product is composed of various flours, it is typically considered EBO (eco-friendly, biodegradable, and organic). A company in India named Bakey’s has been selling commercial edible cutlery since 2010 [2].

Figure 2: Edible cutlery produced by Bakey’s [3]

Preparation of Cutlery   

Figure 3: A schematic diagram of the preparation of edible cutlery [2].

Areas of research on Edible cutlery   

Table 1: Research areas on Edible cutlery [2]

Figure 4: Salient features of edible cutlery [1]

Since edible cutlery is still relatively new to the market and most consumers do not use it frequently, consumers continue to be concerned about its use. Even while the edible cutlery that is now available may be used to eat any form of food, including hot soups, bhelpuris, salads, and ice cream, it does not wear out quickly. They also think it is a matter of time until durability concerns fade [1].

Market for Edible Cutlery 

Figure 5: There has been a steady rise in the market for edible cutlery [4]

From a sustainable perspective, edible cutlery significantly reduces packaging material waste. Additionally, producers of edible cutlery can use materials like wheat bran, rice bran, sorghum, corn, etc., to seize this chance to enter the edible cutlery industry. In 2022, the global market for edible cutlery was worth USD 37,850 million. The Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) is estimated to be 11.1%, and by the end of 2032, this market is projected to increase and reach up to USD 108, 444.24 million [5].