Kirin is giving a taste of its electric salt spoon at CES 2025

On the first night of CES 2025, the Japanese company Kirin Holdings, which is known for its beer and drinks, presented. his new electric spoon which makes your food taste even better. The company says its spoon uses a weak electric current to stabilize sodium ion molecules in your food, adding a strong umami and salty flavor to low-sodium foods.

The limited edition Electronic Salt Spoon was sold in Japan in 2024 for about $127 in American dollars, but Kirin hopes to sell the device worldwide in the coming years. The company says the device can increase the “saltiness” of your food, without adding sodium.

A crowd tried the soup using a Kirin spoon at the CES unveiling in Las Vegas. TechCrunch didn’t try it ourselves, because there’s something about spooning at a public tech conference that’s just not fun.

Although the spoon seems too good to be true, there is convincing research behind it that shows it may be legitimate. The release of the Kirin spoon was the first sale of the technology itself won the 2023 Ig Nobel prizea humble prize for extraordinary scientific research. The researchers who developed it first released their idea in 2011, but they created spoons, forks, and chopsticks that pass electrical currents into food.

Kirin says he made the spoon to help people eat less salt. The problem is particularly important in Japan, where adults in the country eat twice as much as the World Health Organization says.