Restaurant sells food in edible packaging

WikiBar in Paris only offers customers foods that come in an edible container.

Customers at Bob’s fast food chain in Brazil have already experienced edible packaging with their burgers as part of a marketing campaign. Now the WikiBar in Paris is hoping to turn a similar idea into a sustainable business, offering only foods that come in an edible container.

Designed by Mathieu Lehanneur, the space centers around a circular bar that serves items such as ice cream, yoghurts and cheese in a skin that keeps the food fresh as well as enables consumers to eat the products with their hands. The bar is one of a series of outlets planned around the world that will sell WikiPearl products. Created by Harvard professor David Edwards, the invention uses natural food products in place of plastic packaging – for example, its mango ice cream comes in a skin of coconut, while its vanilla ice cream is wrapped in a peanut-based container. The wrappings are biodegradable but designed to be eaten along with the product inside.

WikiBar serves to provide consumers with an easy and eco-friendly way to enjoy non-solid foods, while also serving as a promotional and trial tool for the fledgling technology. WikiFoods, the company behind the idea, has stated that it wants to eventually bring its products into supermarkets, depending on consumer reaction. Could this be the future of package-free food?