Ooho spheres are created by dipping frozen balls of liquid into an algae mixture that forms a membrane around the ice. The ice melts into liquid water and membrane, which is edible and biodegradable, forms a watertight seal around it. To consume the liquid you can either bite into the tasteless membrane and sip it out or just eat the entire ball, membrane and all.
But there are a few problems with the company’s approach. Skipping Rocks Lab’s current mission to make Ooho a staple of festivals, marathons, and other outdoor events is a great start, since those are situations in which single serving beverages without waste are well suited, but the wider goal of becoming “the global solution to water and drinks on-the-go” is really an impossible task.
Unlike bottles, single-gulp water is not something most of us need or would even find a way to use on a daily basis. As demonstrated in videos showcasing Ooho being drunk, the membrane is pretty delicate, and certainly not something you’d toss in a bag or backpack on its own. And because the membrane is edible, if Skipping Rocks envisions Ooho being sold at grocery stores it will mean selling it within some kind of other external packaging, completely negating its “packaging free” mission.
This is a fantastic idea as a novelty. I would think it would be every bit as costly (at least up front) to freeze large quantities of water one golf ball-sized gulp at a time, as it is to create bottles, and as noted, this still doesn't negate the need for packaging.
As a guy who works cold-chain management and has spent years in general grocery distribution, I can also tell you it is a LOT more costly to freeze water in large quantities than heat it... Your bottled water companies tend to heat to guarantee purification - now if you add freezing to the lot (and it's not bringing it to 32, it's likely bringing it to -20 or below to blast freeze), you've added another step to your production.
Not that any of this can't be worked around by men and women far smarter than myself, but those are some big hurdles.
Re: Edible water balls (OOHO)
Posted: Mon Apr 17, 2017 10:37 pm
by Mikey
This seems to be a step toward a solution, not a solution in and of itself. As such, it's great; but those who would tout this as a harbinger of a complete solution to eco-unfriendly packaging will inevitably be disappointed. What I predict - and I hope to hell and back that I ma wrong - is that this will be rushed to the public, become a novelty, and then be abandoned as such novelties always are instead of being used as a stepping stone to an environmentally useful end product.
Re: Edible water balls (OOHO)
Posted: Tue Apr 18, 2017 11:04 am
by IanKennedy
There will inevitably be someone who is allergic to the algae and the resultant law suit will shut the company down.
Re: Edible water balls (OOHO)
Posted: Wed Apr 19, 2017 12:40 am
by Bryan Moore
IanKennedy wrote:There will inevitably be someone who is allergic to the algae and the resultant law suit will shut the company down.
This too...
Re: Edible water balls (OOHO)
Posted: Mon Apr 24, 2017 2:19 am
by McAvoy
Maybe if they can somehow coat a die with that algae or something similar and then inject the die with water and then plug it off with some sort of plug it might work better.