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We've all done it -- gorged on a whole tub of ice cream. But what if you could eat the tub too? Really guzzle the lot. Well, thanks to the invention of edible packaging, now you can.
(CNN) -- He's invented breathable food, flavor clouds and olfactory telephones. Now David Edwards is bringing edible food-packaging to the table.
Called Wikipearl, the wrapping is held together by calcium ions and can include particles of chocolate, nuts and seeds. The idea came out of a conversation Edwards, professor of biomedical engineering at Harvard, had with a sculptor about the concept of tensegrity.
"It's a really interesting property and relevant in terms of rethinking our packaging," he says. "Suddenly packaging becomes part of the culinary experience." Wikipearl ice cream and yoghurt were launched in selected Paris stores last June.
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Edwards began as a biomedical engineer in universities including MIT and Penn State. He left the latter in 1998 after he came up with the idea for inhalable insulin and was approached by Polaris Venture Partners to start a company, Advanced Inhalation Research, with three friends from MIT. It was sold in 1999 to biopharma company Alkermes.
After three more years in academia at Harvard, Edwards left in 2005 for a sabbatical in Paris. "I had a nebular notion to create an experimental cultural organization in the center of Paris," says Edwards, whose book, ArtScience: Creativity in the Post-Google Generation, was published in 2008.
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He founded Le Laboratoire, a contemporary art and design center, in 2007. The first products to come out of Le Lab were Andrea, a plant-based air filter, and LeWhif, a chocolate inhaler. "Our first products were viewed as whimsical and provocative and not taken seriously as commercial products," says Edwards. "Our commercial success now is completely based on being able to not care about the market and play with ideas."
Edwards says the AeroShot, an air-based energy shot with 100mg of caffeine plus B vitamins, will be in 50,000 stores by the end of the year. Also, last May, he opened an exhibition around the OPHONE, a device that allows users to send olfactory messages. "I'm fascinated by olfactive communication," says Edwards. "More than visual and auditory, it has real physiological impact."
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The creation of Harvard biomedical engineer David Edwards, Wikipearl is an edible packaging that is supposed to enhance the food your eating. Early options include mango ice cream with a coconut wrapper, oatmeal bites and natural yoghurt with strawberry wrapping.
Wikipearl draws inspiration from the magic of grape skins and by doing so eliminates plastic from foods and beverages. The technology, called Wikicells, is a soft edible membrane made from calcium ions and natural foodstuff.
Wikicells have also been used to wrap balls of cheese. Whereas each cheese bite would normally be wrapped in foil or plastic, now they can be packaged in complementary flavors such as herb and chilli.
Slightly less appealing perhaps but cool all the same -- once you've finished slurping on your cocktail, why not gobble up your glass?
Edwards and his team recently launched the world's first café for food in edible packaging. Based in Paris, Wikibar offers Wikipearls sushi-style on a circular counter.
"Eat this sandwich without chucking the paper" says the wrapper: a direct approach to waste reduction by Brazilian fast-food chain Bob's Burgers, who have started serving their burgers in edible paper.
Monosol, the company behind dissolvable detergent wrappers, has expanded into the food market: just drop your sachet of oatmeal, hot chocolate or coffee into hot or cold water and watch the packaging disappear.
Hate trying to squeeze out the last scrap of toothpaste? Well no need any more because they've applied the same idea to toothpaste. Just pop it on your toothbrush, run the tap over it and get brushing.
Who knew the tooth-brushing business could be so progressive? Canadian designer Simon Laliberté recently won an award for his dissolvable incisor-shaped toothbrush box.
Even electronics giant Apple has jumped on the bandwagon -- they've begun shipping the earphones for their products in packaging that dissolves in water.
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