Meet "Ooho!" the world's first edible water container made from seaweed. The new design promises to help reduce plastic waste by doing away with the plastic water bottles used to package drinking water.
"Ooho!" was designed by students from the Imperial College London. Rodrigo Garcia Gonzalez, one of the student designers who worked on the project, has been trying to create an edible water container for a few years now and with the help of his colleagues, Gonzalez was able to come up with "Ooho!"
Every year, people consume thousands and thousands of liters of water packaged in a variety of plastic containers. All of this plastic waste eventually ends up in recycling plants and landfills. However, many of them also find their way into forests, rivers and oceans. In an effort to reduce the amount of plastic waste, Gonzalez and his team looked for other alternative materials that can be used to package water.
The team came up with a method using a technique known as "spherification." In the culinary arts and in molecular gastronomy in particular, spherification is used to encase certain liquids such as sauces and fruit extracts into thin spherical containers. This results in little jewel-like packets of flavor that can be used to add flavor and improve the aesthetic appeal of various dishes.
"Liquid forms drops because the liquid exhibits surface tension, bounded completely or almost completely by free surfaces," said Gonzales. "'Ooho!' replicates this behavior, encircle the water in an eatable membrane of algae. It is new way of packaging that propose an alternative to the plastic bottle."
Spherification was first invented by Ferràn Adria, a Spanish chef who came up with the concept over 70 years ago. Building upon Adria's pioneering efforts, Gonzales and his colleagues used brown algae together with calcium chloride and water. By freezing water into a ball, the designers were able to dip it into a solution made with calcium chloride. The solution formed a thin layer surrounding the frozen ball of water. To make the enclosing structure stronger, the ball was then dipped into another solution made from brown algae extract. The designers were able to adjust the strength and thickness of the container by controlling how long it sat in the brown algae solution.
"Nowadays only big companies have the infrastructure to manufacture packaging," Gonzalez said. "The main idea of 'Ooho!' is that everyone could make them at their kitchen, modifying and innovating the 'recipe'. From DIY to CIY (Cook It Yourself)."
"Oohoo!" was named as one of the 12 winning entries to this year's Lexus Design Award where it went head to head with 1,157 other entries from all over the world.
