“Everything
is in smaller and smaller packaging, which is great for grabbing for lunch, for
school, but then it generates so much waste. Edible packaging can be great for
that.”
USDA researcher Dr.
Laetitia Bonnaillie commenting on their plastic wraps made from milk protein
casein
Plastic
wrap may soon be a thing of the past thanks to milk, of all things. This is a
much needed upgrade may became a story you tell your grandchildren; how cows
were saved thanks to their milk being used to make edible plastic.
The
US Department of Agriculture researchers have developed a Plastic wrap made out
milk as noted in the article “Edible
milkbased film preserves food better than plastic”, published August 22
2016, by David Lumb, Engadget.
It also prevents food from spoiling much better than plastic wrap as noted in “A new biodegradable film made out of casein is being researched”, published August 23 2016 by Brittany Vincent, Popular Science.
Interestingly,
because the main ingredient is casein, the researcher realized that they could
add sugars, vitamins and flavorings to make it edible. This is lot like
Saltwater Brewery's Edible Beer Packaging being used on their six-packs of beer
as noted in my blog
article entitled “How
Saltwater Brewery's Edible Beer Packaging will reduce Plastic in the Sea”.
So
how did they make plastic wrap from milk?
USDA Edible Plastic
from Milk - Nanoparticles of cellulose or chitin naturally waterproof
The
researchers, led by USDA researcher Dr. Laetitia Bonnaillie, found that casein,
a protein found in milk, could be combined in powder form with water to make a
new packaging material. To improve strength, they added glycerol to soften it
and citrus pectin to resist humidity and high temperatures.
This leads to some interesting packaging options for products such as coffee or soup packets; just toss the packet into water instead of throwing it away to create an environmental nuisance.
Far
better way to take care of plastic, instead of after the fact as noted in my blog article
entitled “How
JA$100 for recycling 500ml Plastic bottles and Styrofoam Ban will save
Jamaica's Environment”.
Even
the plastic wrapping for single-serve products like Chocolates ice creams and
pizza slices could be made edible. This potential reduces another form of pollution
that's as bad as microbeads, which will be banned from soaps, detergents and
body scrubs in the USA by 2016 as noted in my blog article
entitled “How
US microbeads ban by 2017 means NEPA ban coming to protect Coral Reefs”.
This
is also a drawback; its water soluble nature means that other edible
emulsifiers that a hydrophobic will have to be added. Once such candidate is
plant cellulose in plants or the protein chitin found in krill, which can be
broken down into nanoparticles and woven into the fabric of such containers to
make it less water soluble.
The
might make the containers a little rigid and also crunchy. Still, we may have
to wait years as noted in the article “Milk,
Not Plastic, Will Protect Food in the Future”, published August 22nd 2016
by Amrith Ramkumar, Bloomberg, before
we can eat these fibrous edible wrapping plastics, with nature as our guide!
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