Electrified chopsticks, soup bowls, and other eating implements can make bland food taste much saltier — much tastier. The technology was honored with the 2023 Ig Nobel Nutrition Prize. The prize, awarded to Homei Miyashita and Hiromi Nakamura, for their experiments to determine how electrified chopsticks and drinking straws can change the taste of food.
This short video shows Homei Miyashita answering questions from a man who benefitting from the technology as he eats bland ramen:
The next video shows Ig Nobel co-winner Hiromi Nakamura giving a TEDx talk about the research:
Electric Chopsticks at a Public Event
On Saturday, November 11, 2023, prize winner Homei Miyashita will take part — together with most of the other 2023 Ig Nobel Prize winners — in the Ig Nobel Face-to-Face event at the MIT Museum, in Cambridge, Massachusetts.