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Plastic packaging protects food from moisture and dirt. If you make the packaging out of a water-soluble material and then eat it, surely that's almost complete
by csande17 4y ago
Plastic packaging protects food from moisture and dirt. If you make the packaging out of a water-soluble material and then eat it, surely that's almost completely useless? Like, now you need some kind of additional outer wrapper to stop your edible packaging from getting contaminated.
The article mentions muffin liners as an alternative use case, but those are usually made of thin paper and are already compostable.
- jimmiebtlr 4y agoEdible packaging would also be biodegradable and a big plus, agreed that trying to eat it would pretty much defeat the purpose. Could make some interesting food items with an edible film though.
- WirelessGigabit 4y agoEdible doesn't make sense, because then we need a removeable layer around it to protect the edible part.
- csande17 4y agoI think the parent comment is suggesting using it as a food ingredient, not as packaging. Like dumplings, or like how people make fancy desserts with edible gold leaf.
- 9wzYQbTYsAIc 4y agoThe article describes how this edible part is also anti-microbial, if it were to be consumed instead of just thrown in a composter.
- bee_rider 4y agoI wonder if it would be possible to design a wrapper that wild animals would happily eat. Hypothetically at least this would cut down on the effects of littering.
- morepork 4y agoI think the idea is that it becomes like fruit and vegetables. You purchase them unwrapped, wash them, and eat them. This would have implications on the supply chain of course to try and keep these items clean. It could also replace individually wrapped items, such as in a box of cereal bars the individual bars wouldn't need plastic wrap.
- 9wzYQbTYsAIc 4y agoFrom the article: “The cranberry film can work as a replacement for film plastic, protecting fruits and vegetables with delicate skins, such as English cucumbers.”
- WirelessGigabit 4y agoMy protein bars need individual wrap. I am not putting them 'naked' inside of my hiking backpack. Not to mention how nasty the last one is when it takes you 2 months to finish a box... All of them exposed to air? Thanks but no thanks.
- Renaud 4y agoThat’s what tin boxes are for. They keep their content fresh and protect it.
- lazide 4y agoSo a container for your wrapped product? That gets full of random lint and dust? Meh.
- jonasdegendt 4y agoYou seem quite hell-bent on denouncing containers. Yet, a good container with a plastic seal on the lid will keep your food completely clean and be pretty airtight to keep it fresh for a while.
- 4y ago
- amluto 4y agoMuffin liners actually make more sense to me. It’s often hard to get a muffin liner off of the muffin without losing a lot of muffin. An edible liner that has a good texture might have some actual value.
- sockaddr 4y agoOr you could just sit and try to scrape the residual muffin off with your teeth getting little crumbs all over you and sticky crap all over your fingers like a normal person. Don’t try to play god with your edible wrapper technology. This is the way it’s meant to be.
- robertlagrant 4y agoThe scientists were so intent on seeing if they could improve muffins. They never stopped to consider if they should.
- fy20 4y agoThere are already edible materials that would work like waffle (as in ice cream cones) or rice paper. You could even call it something different to advertise it's green properties, like wuffin or ruffin.
- h4waii 4y agoI feel like "nuffin" makes good sense, nuffin' but edible muffin when you use nuffin wraps.
- alistairSH 4y agoI cooking muffins with liners the norm? We don't use them. A healthy smear of olive oil in the pan and the muffins come out just fine.
- irjustin 4y agowater-soluable packaging would be impossible in high humidity environments.
- RajT88 4y agoYeah, this specific bio-material probably doesn't make sense for moisture and dirt. However, the bio-plastics made from shellfish leftovers (think: crab, lobster, shrimp) would be appropriate for this. The problem with petroleum based products (Styrofoam, plastics) is that they are crazy cheap due to our oil based economy. At some point the economics of that industry will change, and with it the prevailing winds on using plastics as building materials. I would welcome more products being made as sturdy as they used to be. Take for example, pooper scoopers. It's actually quite difficult to buy a scissor-style one made of any kind of metal (there's one which is 80ish USD and made of steel - sort of a vanity product). They're all plastic. They all break, some sooner than others. The one I picked up from my parents' house recently was used from about 1990 to 2003 (and left outdoors since), and performs better than any of the plastic ones we used. It's wood and aluminum, and probably was no more expensive than the plastic ones on offer today. We broke a 25 dollar scooper within a month, and the scooper we inherited will likely outlive yet another dog.
- onlyrealcuzzo 4y ago> At some point the economics of that industry will change, and with it the prevailing winds on using plastics as building materials. KSA can pump oil at current rates for 40 years at $20 per barrel. That'll definitely be enough for global plastic consumption. Economics itself isn't going to phase out plastics in my lifetime.
- labster 4y agoIf oil demand decreases enough, it should get more expensive. It seems counterintuitive, but so much of the supply chain depends on moving large amounts of oil, refineries selling different grades of molecules to different customers, and oil companies not having to pay to shut down old wells. Heh, just kidding on the last one, oil firms never pay to shut down wells, they just sell to small firms which can go bankrupt instead. But the big complicated supply chain for petrochemicals can break at lower scale. Compare how freaked out the markets have gotten at Meta and Netflix for losing users while still being profitable, and you can see how financing could dry up before the wells do. I doubt it’s enough to phase out plastics, but it might make alternatives more economically viable.
- sn41 4y agoAnother point to add: rodents. This is an issue in large warehouses, in humid climates. Plastic is more resilient against rodents, since it is not edible.
- thombat 4y agoCling film does nothing to keep pests out: beetles & weevils go through plastic bags and I've had a persistent rat chew through 2mm of hard plastic box. More important would be retaining the protective atmosphere that perishables are commonly packed with.
- numpad0 4y agoMites and liquids are issues too. Existing aluminized plastic packaging serves purposes to protect food against those.
- taylorius 4y ago"since it is not edible". As of this time, but I wouldn't put it past them to evolve an ability to eat plastic somehow. (Though if they did, a new rat-based eco industry would be born)
- conorcleary 4y agoFor rats, cats, raccoons, skunks, squirrels, chipmunks, and mice (standard warehouse dwellers) the digesting part of plastic isn't the main issue. The plastic may attract them, but the edible content in the plastic bags is often the target. Plastic of nearly any make is easily torn through (chewing, clawing, knawing, etc.) but the shear amount of plastic either as bag or pallet-wrap is the real issue, all over the world. We need to at least start replacing the pallet-wrap with non-petroleum material.