Cook meals in washing machines

Tel Aviv-based design student has created food bags that can be added to the laundry cycle to cook dinner at the same time.

We have written about some interesting innovations around the food packaging recently. A Taiwan-based company uses its clear, inflatable packaging to emphasize the health of cage-free eggs, and ‘living’ packaging allows users to pick fresh fruit at home. Now Israeli design student, Iftach Gazit, has created a set of food bags to cook with a washing machine.

The vacuum-sealed, Sous La Vie packaging is made from waterproof paper and takes its inspiration from the tradition of sous-vide cooking, a method in which food is placed in a vacuum-sealed plastic pouch and placed in a water bath with the aim of cooking food evenly throughout. The product is made from waterproof Tyvek paper to keep the soapy water out and have an inner plastic liner bag to prevent leaks. To use the bags to prepare a meal, chefs simply place the bag of food in with their laundry and adjust the settings using the instructions. As Gazit explains: “Instead of following a sous-vide recipe and cooking a piece of meat at 58˚C for two and a half hours, just set your washing machine to ‘synthetics’ for a long duration programme. Cooking vegetables? Set your machine to ‘cotton’ for a short duration programme.” Prototypes of the design feature the “cooking” instructions on the bags in the same way that washing tags are included on pieces of clothing.

Could this idea be extended? Could we create a future where each household only needs one, multifunctional appliance?