Due to a nifty piece of tech, it may be that we’ll never fall prey to a ‘dodgy’ meal again!

Introducing the Smart Chopsticks!

The ‘Smart’ device is only available as chopsticks. Bizarrely, it was created by the search giants Baidu originally as an April Fool’s stunt. The feedback was so strongly positive that they have decided to investigate further. Baidu at the time had “no serious intention of actually pursuing this, but it generated a lot of excitement both internally and externally.”

The talented designers at Baidu have created chopsticks with sensors to detect if your food is safe enough to eat. They can detect the precise heat of foods, as well as the nutritional value and sell-by date.

The widespread usage of so-called ‘gutter oil’ – the practice of reprocessing waste oil and leftover oils and using it and selling it as new has drawn the attention of the Chinese authorities. Last year health authorities launched a crackdown on the use and manufacture of the oil, with more than 100 people arrested and 20 imprisoned – two for life – as part of the campaign.

So you can imagine the Smart Chopsticks have a readymade audience in China. If the chopsticks detect that the cooking oil has a higher than 25% level of total polar materials, an indicator of freshness, a red light will flash, warning the diner.

Another clever addition is they are also fitted with a sodium analyser, thus allowing the user to regulate their daily salt intake.

As is the norm in today’s world, they can connect to any computer via Wi-Fi and Bluetooth so that your records can be stored and analysed.

Told you they were clever!

Baidu have only made a limited run of prototypes, and no release date or price had been set. But we love the idea. But why stop at chopsticks? This technology would, you assume, work as well in knives and forks. Now not for one moment is Comms casting judgement on the UK’s restaurants but if you just take the salt indicator alone, then this piece of nifty tech would be an excellent addition for those wishing to regulate their sodium intake.

We’re off to petition those fine people at Baidu actually to manufacture the Smart Chopsticks!

Until next time…