biography of Narayana Pessapati
Answers
vit logo
With this edible spoon, you can really wipe your plate clean
Ajuli Tulsyan| Hyderabad 03 Jun 2017, Vol 8 Issue 21
Entrepreneurs, it is said, are those who find new solutions to old problems. It might well be true in the case of Narayana Peesapati, a former scientist at ICRISAT (International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics), Hyderabad.
Constantly troubled at the sight of plastic cutlery that not only poses environmental hazards, but also contains toxic and carcinogenic substances harmful to the body, Narayana had set out to find an alternative to the plastic spoons.
Narayana Peesapati, founder of Bakey’s Food Private Limited, makers of edible cutlery (Photos: P Anil Kumar)
The result of that quest is the development of an incredible product – the world’s first edible cutlery.
Made from edible ingredients such as rice, carom seeds, wheat, jowar (sorghum) and black pepper, the spoons and chopsticks developed by Narayana can be eaten after use. If discarded, they either become food for insects or rodents, or decompose within 5-6 days.
In 2010, Narayana set up Bakey’s Food Private Limited. After the initial years of struggle, he has now made the venture profitable with a current annual turnover of around Rs 2 crore.
But the journey, from the time of conceptualizing the product to developing the prototype and then marketing the spoons, was not at all easy.
Narayana spent more than Rs 60 lakh to develop the machine for making the products and later had to invest around Rs 3 crore to set up the factory.
“I had to sell my two houses in Hyderabad and Baroda, and also dip into my savings and borrow from friends, family and banks,” he says, adding, “In fact, this very house where I am residing now (in Mushirabad) was on mortgage.”
It was around 2006 that the idea first came to him that he could create something like edible cutlery to replace the ubiquitous plastic spoons.
Constantly troubled at the sight of plastic cutlery that not only poses environmental hazards, but also contains toxic and carcinogenic substances harmful to the body, Narayana had set out to find an alternative to the plastic spoons.
The result of that quest is the development of an incredible product – the world’s first edible cutlery.
Made from edible ingredients such as rice, carom seeds, wheat, jowar (sorghum) and black pepper, the spoons and chopsticks developed by Narayana can be eaten after use. If discarded, they either become food for insects or rodents, or decompose within 5-6 days.

In 2010, Narayana set up Bakey’s Food Private Limited. After the initial years of struggle, he has now made the venture profitable with a current annual turnover of around Rs 2 crore.
But the journey, from the time of conceptualizing the product to developing the prototype and then marketing the spoons, was not at all easy.
Narayana spent more than Rs 60 lakh to develop the machine for making the products and later had to invest around Rs 3 crore to set up the factory.
“I had to sell my two houses in Hyderabad and Baroda, and also dip into my savings and borrow from friends, family and banks,” he says, adding, “In fact, this very house where I am residing now (in Mushirabad) was on mortgage.”
It was around 2006 that the idea first came to him that he could create something like edible cutlery to replace the ubiquitous plastic spoons.