The SpudWare® Story
The story begins in the office of Excellent Packaging & Supply, spring of 2005. We were putting together our comprehensive program of sustainable and compostable foodservice packaging and things were going just fine. The only problem was that the forks made of corn were melting in spaghetti. Restaurants using the melting forks began to notice how unhappy their customers were, That was unacceptable to our clients and us. We set out to find bio-based cutlery that would not melt.
We had heard of a bio-polymer resin formulated from potato starch and soy oil, so we had a mold made and soon received 6 prototypes in the mail. We tested them to make sure they would not melt. We then ordered 3 million utensils (the minimum amount) and waited for them to arrive, speculating that they would work.
Our first order arrived in August, 2005. We started selling SpudWare® into the market and were experiencing positive results when we got a call from the X Games. They wanted to have a completely compostable waste stream for the X Games employees and loved our new utensils. They were about to issue a press release and needed to know what our cutlery was called. We had only two hours to come up with a name. I liked Potatoware and suggested it to my wife who got a look on her face that told me no go. She suggested “spudware” and also told me to let the office vote on it. The vote for “spudware” was unanimous and Potatoware died a timely death.
Since then we have sold over 10 million SpudWare® forks, reducing our reliance on oil with every fork . Every month we sell 6 million utensils, all made from vegetable starch and natural fillers. Initially SpudWare® was made from potato starch and soy oil but as our needs have grown we have started using other vegetable starches and fillers. The different feel of SpudWare® in the mouth seemed to make SpudWare® stick in your brain.
We are happy to let the world know that there is a fully functional bio-based choice when it comes to disposable tableware. This is the story of SpudWare® so far. The saga continues…