I don’t mean to sound alarmist, but this global pandemic has surely raised questions about personal safety and how we could keep ourselves from coming in contact with potential germs and infections. The Elepsy helps address concerns for people who are worried their food could be potentially contaminated. While fresh produce like meat and eggs get cooked before consumption (ensuring that any microorganisms like bacteria and viruses are instantly killed off in the high heat), fruits and vegetables don’t share that advantage. The Elepsy ensures that your fruits and veggies are safe for consumption by thoroughly cleaning them beforehand.
Designed to be a safe sanitization-station for your fruits and vegetables, the Elepsy uses a dual-stage process to make sure your food is immaculately clean before you consume it. The product can be broadly separated into three parts – A carafe that lets you measure the water needed to clean your fruits/vegetables, a sanitization-unit that carefully cleans your food, and an outer tray which you can use to place your food after it’s been cleaned. The design intuitively guides the user through the process while the overall aesthetic helps convey the message of cleanliness, minimalism, and simplicity.
Step one involves lifting the transparent carafe off the base and filling it up with water. Once the carafe is filled, place your food into the Elepsy’s sanitation-tub and pour the water from the carafe in. A single knob/button on the product’s body lets you turn to choose a cycle and press to confirm. Once confirmed, the Elepsy begins its dual-stage cleaning process by first scrubbing dirt off your food using ultrasonic vibrations passed through water, and then sanitizing it by electrolyzing the water to instantly kill any germs in a non-toxic way without using any chemicals. As soon as the cycle is over, a satisfying bell-sound lets you know your fruits and veggies are clean, and that you can take them out and arrange them on the external tray for quickly drying off before you consume directly, use for prep/garnish, or fix yourself a nice, healthy salad!
The Elepsy vegetable + fruit sanitizer is a concept that was created as a collaborative project between the students of Umeå Institute of Design and Electrolux to think about post-Covid-19 home solutions.
Designers: Sinan Altun, Yilin Lyu and Yuchen Lan (Umeå Institute of Design) in collaboration with Electrolux
