A new Ford Fusion is assembled with products made with food ingredients.
SACRAMENTO - Have you smelled your car lately, or tasted it for that matter? Sounds like a strange question, but it turns out some newer-model vehicles are partly made up of food ingredients.
The idea is to make vehicles more sustainable and environmentally friendly.
One such car put a Sacramento chef to the test, and left News10's Jeff Maher with quite an appetite.
Chef Patrick Mulvaney, owner of Mulvaney's, put together a variety of items based on food ingredients that can be found in the brand-new Ford Fusion.
"We're diverting a lot of materials form landfills by using those components from the materials in our cars." Said Ford Product Sustainability Manager Carrie Majeske.
Those components include coconut, soy, and wheat straw.
Coconut is used in the trunk for the load floors.
Soy is embedded in the seat foam, that way they don't have to use as much petroleum, and wheat straw for re-enforced plastic.
And it's not just food. Dandelions are being tested for future development in tires, some seat fabric is made from recycled soda bottles, and denim is being used for sound insulation in the carpeting.
"It's not something that we would sell the vehicle on, but it's definitely something people appreciate once they find it out." Said Majeske.
Maher wondered if licking the hood would taste like raspberry.
"No I don't think so and I wouldn't recommend that either." Warned Majeske.
So Maher took a bite out of the seat, but said it didn't taste so good.
But Chef Mulvaney's auto menu sure did.
And he says creating the menu was a bit of a challenge.
"Hay, wow what do you do with straw, so what we did was roast chicken on a bed of straw so you get that flavor feel without actually eating the straw itself." He said.
Mulvaney also made ahi tartar, but used dandelion greens and topped it off with a salsa verde, chalupas with roasted chicken and a soybean pesto, and what turned out to be Maher's favorite; lamb meatballs with a hatch chile on top. But Maher had trouble putting the brakes on his enormous appetite, and has always had a problem with controlling his cravings. So he ate the entire plate of lamb meatballs, leaving Chef Mulvaney in shock.
Chef Mulvaney designed the menu for a one-day private event with bloggers, writers, and politicians.
But he said he liked some of the items so much, he may add them to his permanent menu, including the Hay-baked chicken.
News10/KXTV