The avocado has soared in popularity in the last few years, often referred to as the green gold. According to the World Economic Forum, Eleven billion pounds of the fruit are consumed annually around the world.
Our love of avocados comes at a significant cost to the environment: approximately 2,000 liters of water are used to grow just one kilogram of avocados, while forests are cleared to make space for avocado trees.
That's why Arina Shokouhi, a London-based researcher and designer, decided to develop an eco-friendly avocado alternative. She hopes that it will inspire consumers to think twice before slicing into the fruit for breakfast toast or whipping up the next batch of guacamole.
It can be a positive solution and we should embrace it because we know that we can't carry on living like this, says Shokouhi.
The Ecovado is indistinguishable from the real thing at first glance. The skin of Ecovado mimics avocado peel, and is made with beeswax and natural food coloring containing spinach and charcoal powder. The meat of the alternative fruit is made with four simple ingredients: broad beans as the base, apple for freshness, cold-pressed rapeseed oil for creaminess and a sprinkle of hazelnut. A whole chestnut or hazelnut is used for the pit.
The Ecovado was developed as part of Shokouhi's Material Futures master's degree at Central Saint Martins art school. She came up with the idea at the end of her first year, and she collaborated with University of Nottingham food scientist Jack Wallman, who had studied the molecular properties of avocados to understand what gives them creamy texture. It took eight months to perfect the recipe, says Shokouhi.
The choice of ingredients was very limited because I want it to be 100% local. That was my first priority, Shokouhi says, adding that she calls it the British version.
She says that broad beans are molecularly different from avocados and masking their bitter smell was difficult to mask. Wallman and his team found ways to balance out the ingredients and create a convincing avocado alternative.
Martindale believes that the same could be done for avocados because people want to know that the avocados have been grown on land that is responsibly managed. His team is looking at uses for avocado byproducts, including recyclable cutlery made from avocado pits and oils from the peel and pulp, for use in lubricants and foods.
Martindale believes that moderation is a step in the right direction, rather than omitting imported fruits and vegetables entirely. Shokouhi's Ecovado shows incredible creativity, but he questions if the product can scale to become a viable alternative to avocado imports.
She says that Shokouhi's product has had interest from potential investors since graduating. She hopes to sell the Ecovado in supermarkets for a similar price to real avocados. Shokouhi has also experimented with Japanese edamame beans and is intrigued by the idea of producing Ecovado in other countries using different local ingredients in the future.
The taste might not be 100% exactly like avocado, but that doesn't matter as long as you can have it on your sourdough, and it tastes good and looks good, and it's healthy.