WikiCell Designs’ Edible Food and Beverage Packaging Receives Prestigious SIAL Global Food Industry Award

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. & PARIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--WikiCell Designs Inc., a Cambridge, Mass. and Paris, France-based company developing deliciously edible forms of food and beverage packaging, today announced that it has received the prestigious Special Jury Award for Innovation at SIAL Paris, the leading global food industry conference.

“We intend to bring to consumers a novel, delicious, and healthy eating experience that moves the world away from the plastic footprint that is such a big part of food and beverage consumption.”

“It is a tremendous honor that the SIAL Special Jury selected WikiCell Designs to receive this year’s innovation award,” said WikiCell Designs CEO and co-founder Robert Connelly. “We intend to bring to consumers a novel, delicious, and healthy eating experience that moves the world away from the plastic footprint that is such a big part of food and beverage consumption.”

“We’ve developed a technology that envelopes foods and beverages in natural edible packages and is very similar to how nature packages fruits and vegetables,” said WikiCell inventor David Edwards, Professor at Harvard University and founder of ArtScience Labs. “But unlike the skin of a grape or orange we can deliver flavors, other food products and even nutritional elements with our “wrapper,” enhancing the eating experience quite significantly.”

WikiCell Designs, which has demonstrated WikiCell ice creams, yoghurts, cheeses, and a variety of drinks including coffee, cocktails and juices, anticipates the introduction of the first WikiCell wrapped products in 2013 at the WikiBar in Paris, which is now open for consumer testing and private events.

About SIAL

At the crossroads of global food supply and demand, SIAL establishes numerous food connections between industry professionals. SIAL is concerned that its international exhibition is not merely a trade fair but a forum for interaction that highlights the leading trends, major innovations and market realities of tomorrow. With 140,000 visitors and 6,000 exhibitors, SIAL’s ambitions have been met and a roadmap clearly defined: to cultivate its role as a visionary, purchasing advisor and wellspring of untapped trends. http://www.sialme.com/

About WikiCell Designs

WikiCell Designs is developing deliciously edible forms of packaging that enclose food or drinks in ways similar to how nature protects foods such as grapes, oranges, or coconuts. The company seeks to fundamentally change the way we package and consume foods. The WikiCell approach was imagined by David Edwards in 2009 and was developed through the joint efforts of a dedicated team including designer Francois Azambourg, Wyss Institute Director and Harvard professor Don Ingber, and a group of designers and scientists of different backgrounds at Le Laboratoire, the center of the ArtScience Labs innovation organization founded and directed by Dr. Edwards, also a faculty member of the Wyss Institute. The company has laboratories and offices in Paris and Cambridge, Massachusetts, and is backed by leading investors Flagship Ventures and Polaris Venture Partners. The company will launch the first WikiCell commercial products in 2013. For more information, visit http://www.wikicells.com/

About ArtScience Labs

ArtScience Labs is a network of culture labs founded by Harvard Professor David Edwards that catalyze idea translation through art and design experiments at frontiers of science. With bases in Paris, France (Laboratoire, The Lab Store) and Boston, USA (The ArtScience Prize), ArtScience Labs counts partners in Asia, Europe, Africa, and North America. ArtScience Labs engages through cultural experimentation and educational programs thousands of urban teens and university students each year around the world, and has produced since 2007 cultural and commercial innovations that meet the public in stores and galleries around the world. For more information, visit http://artsciencelabs.org/

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