How to butter a loaf in 30 seconds

Published May 27, 2016

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London - It may just be the best thing since sliced bread.

A retired chef has developed a device that can butter a loaf in just 30 seconds.

And unlike so many recent inventions there are no apps, smartphones or microchips involved – just a little ingenuity and elbow grease.

Kevin Whitehead, 60, got the idea from the equipment that paints white lines on to roads.

A small steel box is filled with butter and then controlled by a plunger that pushes the butter out of a gap in the bottom of the device. The user moves the box across the bread from top to bottom, leaving butter spread evenly across the slice.

Mr Whitehead, who worked in the catering industry for 20 years, said: “Spreading butter on sandwiches is one of those jobs where if you’re doing it every day it can become very tedious.

“There was nothing like this in the market. Some people use the back of a spoon and the Armed Forces sometimes melt the butter and spread it on with a paintbrush. I was thinking there must be a quicker way of spreading butter and looking around for solutions.

“Within the industry there are conveyor belts in a factory that will do it but they cost thousands of pounds.

“The other way is to do it by hand with a butter knife but there was nothing really in between. I got the idea from the equipment that’s used to paint white lines on roads and thought it was worth trying it with butter.”

He came up with his invention 25 years ago when he worked in catering at universities and factories.

He left to become a driving instructor in the 1990s but was forced to retire last year due to shoulder problems.

It was then that he decided to set up the firm called Offundo – Latin for “to spread” – with his wife Julie, 57, to commercialise the idea.

Mr Whitehead, who works from his home in Gotham, Nottinghamshire, said: “Since I came up with the design it’s always been at the back of my mind as a business idea but when I was working I didn’t have the time. If you’re doing two or three loaves a day it wouldn’t be worth it but anyone going through ten loaves a day it would save them a lot of time. It means one pair of hands can do four people’s work.”

Despite getting their business up and running just last month, the couple – who have invested £15 000 (about R300 000) of their pension fund – have already sold 15 of the devices.

They have also commissioned 600 of the spreaders, which they sell for £90 each, to be made and plan to sell them to high-volume catering operations such as hospitals, prisons and sandwich suppliers. Mrs Whitehead, who is helping with marketing, administration and sales, said: “It’s an excellent idea and has legs as a business model. It’s so fast and we just need to get people to realise its potential.”

Daily Mail

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