NEW YORK – The Replicator, a device used to synthesize meals for passengers on board the Star Trek Enterprise, may not be so futuristic after all. Reuters reports that Israeli entrepreneurs Ayelet Carasso and Doron Marco at White Innovation have developed a Replicator-like device that can prepare meals in 30 seconds.

The Genie, similar in size and appearance to a coffee maker, can produce an unlimited variety of meals using pods that contain natural dehydrated ingredients. The machine uses a mobile app to operate and prepares meals in recyclable containers.

"The dish can be anything, it can be a meal like chicken with rice, like couscous with vegetable or an amazing Ramen or even a chocolate soufflé or any other desert that you want," Carasso told the news source, adding, “We're using only natural ingredients, we're not using any preservatives or anything that people add to their meals."

Meals are activated once an option is chosen through the mobile app. The Genie then begins mixing, shaking and adding any required liquids from tubes attached to the back of the compact machine, which bakes or cooks the desired dish at the appropriate temperature. The all-natural ingredients contained in the pods are freeze-dried and have a shelf-life of between one and two years.

Carasso and Marco conceived of the Genie and pods when they struggled to find restaurants that delivered to their office during late at night. The team is already working on expanding the capabilities of the mobile app and expects that Genie will cater to individual users.

While Genie's target population is primarily in western countries, Marco and Carasso say they designed the device with the hopes that it could help countries that don't have enough access to food. 

"In our world, we are getting fat and we are throwing away a lot of food, in their world, they don't have any food. So if you use Genie, you can distribute the food better, you can have the shelf life much longer without the preservatives, give the people better food," Marco told Reuters. 

At a tasting at Café Louise in Ramat Hashron, staff was pleasantly surprised by Genie's chocolate soufflé. Yossi Orbach, co-owner of the café, who recently became Genie's sole distributor in Israel, said Genie can help restaurant and café owners increase profit margins because 30% of their ingredients currently go to waste. "In a way there is a full menu," Orbach told the news source, adding, "It gives me an option to do, actually, whatever I want without any preparing."

White Innovation hopes to bring the Genie into convenience stores and cafés before reaching individual consumers for home use. With a string of local distributors and sales underway in Europe, Greece and the United States, Marco and Carasso say mass production will begin sooner than they initially expected.