Diners at KFC eateries throughout Britain soon will be able to have their coffee and eat the cup, too.
KFC, one of the fast food chains operated by Yum Brands, plans to test an edible cup made from a wafer coated in sugar paper and lined with a heat-resistant white chocolate. The new cup is to debut at about the same time as KFC outlets plan to introduce Seattle’s Best Coffee, a Starbucks Corp unit.
“We have been experimenting with edible packaging to see if it could be a feasible product to bring to market in limited quantities,” Yum international operations brand manager Jocelyn Bynoe said in a statement.
The new cup aims to address several of the trends bedeviling the food business today, including consumer concerns about the environmental impact of packaging and their desire for simplicity.
“This type of edible packaging is definitely aligned with the global consumer mindset in terms of sustainability and simplifying their life,” said Shilpa Rosenberry, senior director of global consumer strategy at Daymon Worldwide, a consulting firm that works with many food companies.
Yogurt businesses and coffee restaurants are seeking ways to reduce the footprint their packaging leaves, and more restaurants and food service operations are using recyclable materials in their takeout businesses.
Rosenberry said she had even seen examples of retail packaging that could be turned into furniture, and boxes that could be repurposed for practical uses.
“Millennials in particular want to make sure an innovation is functional, works and is right for their lives,” she said.
Other companies have been offering similar items. Lavazza, the Italian coffee brand, had edible cookie cups, while Coolhaus sells its ice cream sandwiches in potato starch wrappers printed with inks made from vegetables. In New York, Dominique Ansel Bakery offers a chocolate-chip shot, with organic milk poured into a cookie cup.
The new “Scoff-ee Cup” to be used at KFC, first reported by USA Today, was made in partnership with the Robin Collective, which calls itself a “purveyor of curious events and experimental food.”
The chocolate lining is designed to melt and soften the crisp wafer in the same way that a biscotti softens when dipped in coffee.
“Not only do the edible cups taste amazing, but they smell delicious, too,” Robin Collective designer Brandy Wright said in a statement.
The cups have been dosed with ambient aromas, including “Coconut Sun Cream,” “Freshly Cut Grass” and “Wild Flowers.”
BUSINESS UPDATE: The iPhone assembler said operations outlook is expected to show quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year growth for the second quarter Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday reported strong growth in sales last month, potentially raising expectations for iPhone sales while artificial intelligence (AI)-related business booms. The company, which assembles the majority of Apple Inc’s smartphones, reported a 19.03 percent rise in monthly sales to NT$510.9 billion (US$15.78 billion), from NT$429.22 billion in the same period last year. On a monthly basis, sales rose 14.16 percent, it said. The company in a statement said that last month’s revenue was a record-breaking April performance. Hon Hai, known also as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), assembles most iPhones, but the company is diversifying its business to
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: The chipmaker last month raised its capital spending by 28 percent for this year to NT$32 billion from a previous estimate of NT$25 billion Contract chipmaker Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電子) yesterday launched a new 12-inch fab, tapping into advanced chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) packaging technology to support rising demand for artificial intelligence (AI) devices. Powerchip is to offer interposers, one of three parts in CoWoS packaging technology, with shipments scheduled for the second half of this year, Powerchip chairman Frank Huang (黃崇仁) told reporters on the sidelines of a fab inauguration ceremony in the Tongluo Science Park (銅鑼科學園區) in Miaoli County yesterday. “We are working with customers to supply CoWoS-related business, utilizing part of this new fab’s capacity,” Huang said, adding that Powerchip intended to bridge
Microsoft Corp yesterday said that it would create Thailand’s first data center region to boost cloud and artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure, promising AI training to more than 100,000 people to develop tech. Bangkok is a key economic player in Southeast Asia, but it has lagged behind Indonesia and Singapore when it comes to the tech industry. Thailand has an “incredible opportunity to build a digital-first, AI-powered future,” Microsoft chairman and chief executive officer Satya Nadella said at an event in Bangkok. Data center regions are physical locations that store computing infrastructure, allowing secure and reliable access to cloud platforms. The global embrace of AI
Qualcomm Inc, the world’s biggest seller of smartphone processors, gave an upbeat forecast for sales and profit in the current period, suggesting demand for handsets is increasing after a two-year slump. Revenue in the three months ended in June will be US$8.8 billion to US$9.6 billion, the company said in a statement Wednesday. Excluding certain items, earnings will be US$2.15 to US$2.35 a share. Analysts had projected sales of US$9.08 billion and earnings of US$2.16 a share. The outlook signals that the smartphone market has begun to bounce back, tracking with Qualcomm’s forecast that demand would gradually recover this year. The San