Taste No Waste® Project

The Taste no Waste Project communicates the concept of the edible plate as a viable cultural and material model for the reduction of waste. Edible containers are made to replace disposable food containers and to offer viable solutions for waste reduction at its source, while simultaneously offering a complimentary gastronomic discovery experience in the process. The concept features a new aesthetic and typology of products that give rise to new ways of handling food and encouraging new prehensile modes and rituals around the meal.

‘The Taste No Waste project seeks to shift fundamental preconceptions about the ways we’ve learned to behave towards food and their containers, and applies culture-specific anthropological study and insight to provide contextual solutions for sustainable food material innovation. I consider edible tableware a viable agent for cultural change. Creating a new typology of shapes and food materials that provides the user with greater interaction with the product - and a tasteful and nutritional experience - generates a deeper, more meaningful experience and helps support this new sustainable food practice.’

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The Edible Plate as a Viable Cultural and Material Model for Waste Reduction

Urban mobility, in its multiple forms, has created greater demand for ready-made meals. Recent anthropological and sociological research on food widely documents the extent to which food behavior for individuals of all ages and cultural backgrounds has evolved in recent decades. Food consumption has become more individualized and less structured around the home-cooked meal. As a result, food is often consumed over the entire day, with meals frequently eaten rapidly or on the fly. The disposable plate, therefore, is a symptom of this tendency towards deconstructed food habits, a symbol of the disposable culture that marks our time. To cater to this trend, the fast food industry has responded with an incomparable range of now widely available products, which, in turn, has only led to a further increase in the use of disposable plates. The Taste No Waste® project offers potential solutions to the reduction of waste at its source by creating edible food container products, which simultaneously encourage new approaches to food usage and handling.

The project distinguishes itself as one of the first projects to transform food into useful, and - perhaps more importantly - sustainable objects. It facilitates the exploration of links with experimental cuisine on a gastronomic and artistic level, and with transformation techniques well-known to the food industry. The project contributes new knowledge and practices to the fields of food and industrial design.

For the last 15 years, Bisson has been exploring the potential scope of production processes for diverse edible containers. Through field inquiry, she has widely investigated the nutritional and sanitary issues they raise. First explored locally in Montreal with various edible containers destined for serving pastries over the counter, the concept was brought to a more provocative level with prototypes commissioned by Toronto Design Exchange in 2003 for the exhibition Design for the XXI Century. In 2008, started a two-year food science exploration with the support of the Fonds québécois de recherche sur la société and the collaboration of chefs and scientists from the industry and of the ITHQ Research and Expertise Center (Institut du tourisme et d’hôtellerie du Québec). In he book Edible: Food as material (2009), Diane Leclair Bisson gives account of the work in gastronomy and food science conducted during this experimental phase, which served to validate a wide range of recipes and techniques for transforming edible matter. Edible introduces food into the array of production materials. The food explorations, presented in the book as material samples, illustrate the production processes and the possible scope and forms of future edible containers and plates. They also illustrate the potential of vegetables and fruits as well as new flours in producing highly nutritional and colourful products. This research enabled her to create a new typology of edible products with innovative shapes and tastes to serve a variety of food. Her edible containers include: the Jelly bowls, the Food Nest series, the 3-bite spoon, children’s wraps and the basket series. Since 2012, she also serves as Director of Research & Development of Edible Bubbles for PhoodStation, a conceptual food science laboratory based in Montréal.

The edible object calls not only for a new aesthetic, which will have an impact on our understanding of food, but also for new gestures contributing to waste reduction. More than just a practical response to pollution, the edible plate is a vehicle for a change in social norms. The concept of a new range of edible objects and the exploration of food transformation contributes to the definition and introduction of a new as-yet unexplored avenues in regard to sustainable practices.

Edible Container Conceptual Prototypes

Reducing the use of Styrofoam disposable dishware

Disposable dishware was introduced in the 1950’s. Over the course of the following decades, plastic and foam competed with paper due to a growing demand for disposable products. Today, Styrofoam (PS) plates used in the fast food and catering industries exemplify the kind of non-decompostable product commonly found in landfills, since their recycling offers little economic value to the industry.

Because the average Western consumer produces nearly 4 pounds of garbage every day, the use of disposable dishware remains a great concern. Statistics show that in accordance with contemporary lifestyles, carryout from restaurant shops is rising dramatically. The PS disposable plate is a symbol of our time, as it is still promoting a throw-away culture. Edible plates and containers are a promising solution for the reduction of non-recyclable waste.

The edible container prototypes commissioned by the Toronto Design Exchange in 2003 for the exhibition Design for the XXI Century explore new ways of serving and handling food proposing a completely new typology of shapes.

The Finger bags are destined to replace traditional presentation of finger foods by enabling people to gather 2 or 3 bags to place on their finger at once.

Food-pockets, larger than bite size, inserted into a folded napkin as an alternative to the plate.

The Fun Food Station is designed for children and aims at eliminating the plate, the glass and utensils all together. The concept suggests a three-part container composed of a vegetable cracker plate made to receive and accompany a sandwich, which sits on an outer ring made out of fruit paste. This ring serves doubly as a container for fruit juices during the meal, and as a desert itself once emptied of liquid. The straw is designed to be made with sweet biscuit dough.

The Finger plate is composed of 3 small sequential containers that can easily be broken off in equal portions along a scored line. The middle piece extends into a large semi-circular ring underneath that secures it firmly to one’s finger.

A 3-sided plate is designed for bigger meals with a notch to insert a napkin. The star shape of the plate may easily be broken up into pieces to then be eaten. The plate comes with a small, crunchy multi-purpose cutlery tool designed specifically for the format and as a delicious final to the meal.