Edible, eco-friendly wheat plates from Kerala

KOCHI: 'Thooshan plate' is an eco-friendly plate in which you can eat and later on eat the plate itself like a rusk. If not, the plate can be disposed which will be dissolved into the soil. The powder can be used as fertilizer for plants and can be used to fed cattle, poultry and fish.

The plate is made by boiling wheat bran. Husk to Rusk - Green Dream ... From bran to rusk ... Thooshan wheat plate is part of the green dream of Vinayakumar Balakrishnan and his wife Indira Nair in Kakkanad Gokulam.

Indira is a former bank employee. Vinay Kumar was an officer in Mauritius. They moved to Kakkanad from Karamana in Thiruvananthapuram in 2002. The then beautiful village Kakkanad was later polluted by plastic objects. Vinayakumar found a wheat plate somewhere in Dubai, manufactured by a company in Poland. He contacted them but to no avail.

He later resigned and returned home. The investigation and research lasted for three years. Technical assistance was provided by IIT Kanpur, Kerala Agricultural University, Indigram Labs and CSIR. He set up a factory in Angamaly. Wheat bran was bought from a local mill for Rs. 25 per kg. It now produces 1,000 plates a day.

The plate tastes like wheat. Salt or sweet will be added as per the order. It is stronger than plastic plate. At present, dinner plate and snack plate are available. Spoon and fork will be produced soon. Rice powder straw is also available Price Rs 5.

Dinner plate (150 g): Rs 20

Snack plate (30 g): Rs 10

"We are getting lots of orders. Will increase production. We will be available soon on Amazon and other online stores.", said Indira Nair.