Ecovado is an avocado alternative hoping to reduce the number of avocados people eat while still indulging their cravings for it. Recent graduate Arina Shokouhi, designed it for her final project at Central St. Martins in London.
Avocados have gained rapid popularity, becoming a health food staple in European and North American diets and a millennial cultural icon. As demands for the creamy fruit soar, it is causing the deforestation of some of the world’s most diverse landscapes and making the fruit less accessible to people in the Central and South American regions they are grown in.
It is also one of the most unsustainable crops because production is energy and natural resource-intensive. “Each avocado requires 320 litres of water to grow and harvest internationally,” says Shokouhi.
Despite having a much smaller environmental footprint, the Ecovado looks and feels exactly like a real avocado. You’ll notice its familiar waxy dark-green exterior, smooth light-green interior, and round pit resting at its centre. Shokouhi achieves the peel using a food-colouring-dyed wax that is biodegradable and compostable. For the pit, a walnut, chestnut, or hazelnut is used – which can be eaten upon removal.
Working with Jack Wallman, a food scientist from the University of Nottingham’s Food Innovation Centre, the pair studied the chemical elements of avocados to identify equivalencies using natural and local sources. They eventually formulated a unique recipe that improves upon the existing avocado rather than merely reproducing it.
The inside of the Ecovado consists of a calculated combination of rapeseed oil, broad beans (for moderate bitterness), creamed hazelnuts (for fatty, nutty flavour), and apples (for texture and slight sweetness) – ingredients which are easily accessible in the UK. But by formulating the recipe from local ingredients, the flavour varies across production locations. It ensures that the product remains low-impact wherever produced.
Many people are beginning to move away from using avocados entirely, but there is no doubt that they are still really healthy and delicious. A recent study found that eating avocados can lower cholesterol levels and improve overall diet quality. But switching to a more sustainable option to fill your avocado toast and guacamole cravings every once in a while, might not be a bad thing either.
All images in this article are courtesy of Arina Shokouhi.
