[activeStick]

Awesome, awesome innovation by China to help reduce environment contamination.

By incorporating certain soy proteins into the structure, Chinese University of Hong Kong scientists successfully created edible food packaging.

Now, scientists at the Chinese University of Hong Kong have developed an edible, transparent and biodegradable material with considerable potential for use as food packaging.

The heavy reliance on petrochemicals and inherent non-biodegradability of plastic packaging means it has long been a significant contributor to environmental contamination. The team members have turned their attention to bacterial cellulose (BC) – an organic compound derived from certain types of bacteria that has gained attention as a sustainable, easily available and non-toxic solution to the pervasive use of plastics.

In the recent paper, published in the Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture and titled “Edible, strong, and low-hygroscopic bacterial cellulose derived from biosynthesis and physical modification for food packaging,” the researchers presented a novel approach to address the limitations of BC-based materials.

By incorporating certain soy proteins into the structure and coating it with an oil-resistant composite, the scientists successfully created an edible, transparent and robust BC-based composite packaging.

Ngai noted that this approach has high feasibility for scale-up. “It doesn’t need specific conditions like chemical reactions, but rather a simple and practical method with mixing and coating,” he added. “This approach offers a promising solution to the challenge of developing sustainable and environmentally friendly packaging materials that can replace single-use plastics on a large scale.”

The study showed that the plastic alternative could be degraded completely within one or two months. Unlike other bio-derived plastics such as polylactic acid, the BC-based composite does not require specific industrial composting conditions to degrade. “The material developed in this research is completely edible, making it safe for turtles and other sea animals to consume without causing aquatic toxicity in the ocean,” Ngai continued.

https://www.jpost.com/business-and-i...article-748532