An international team of scientists from Russia and India have succeeded in creating an edible food wrap that’s suitable to be used with fruits, veggies, meat, seafood, and poultry.
The wrap is made using natural ingredients only and the research notes they’re safe for the health of the consumer and the environment.
The study that was published in the Food Engineering journal notes that these wraps are soluble in water and have the capacity to dissolve by almost 90 percent in a period of 24 hours.
Seems amazing, right?
What Is the Main Ingredient in these Edible & Eco-Friendly Food Wrap?
According to the senior researcher from the Organic Synthesis lab at the Ural Federal University and co-author of the paper, Rammohan Aluru, they’ve made three types of films using seaweed biopolymer sodium alginate.
Aluru adds that they’ve chosen it because of its proven film-forming capacity.
They combined the alginate molecules with ferulic acid, a natural antioxidant that strengthens the film, but also adds to its homogeneity, rigidness, and longevity.
Moreover, the professor of the Department of Organic and Biomolecular Chemistry at Ural Federal University, Grigory Zyryanov this wrap will keep the food fresh longer because of the antioxidant elements that slow down the process of oxidation.
Zyryanov adds that there’s a possibility to further enhance the natural antiviral elements of this wrap by adding things like ginger, turmeric, and garlic and thus, minimize the risk of viruses.
Is an Industrial Scale Production Possible?
Interestingly, the authors of the study note that there’s no need of using specific equipment to enable industrial scale production of these edible wraps.
Creating these films, the scientists explain, can be quite simple if there’s a constant source of algae nearby, for example, an ocean.
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