Edible Plastic Wrap

[Guest guest]

Thought this was interesting. DH said 15 years ago in an

Asian country where rice is a staple, where they have open air food

vendors ( he can't recall which country), they had edible bowls.

Apparently, prior to that, they were having problems with the amount of

garbage from the vendors who sold food. So, they came up with edible

bowls - rice that was compressed. So, one would get their soup, or

whatever, eat that, then eat the bowl.....Similar concept to the

" paper " that is on some Asian candies - the " paper, "

which looks a little like skinny saran wrap surrounds each candy, which

is a bit sticky. Without something, they probably would have stuck

together. So, rather than have people use something which needed to be

discarded, they came up with the edible " paper. "

But, I wonder how people would react to certain things, like something

made out of shells or shellfish, if they had an allergy to that type of

food?

Lynn

 

Edible " Plastic

Wrap "

Microbes in our food supply are a chronic problem, as we've seen with

E. coli and Salmonella outbreaks in recent years. Though our

country's food supply remains safer than most, outbreaks still occur and

they can be deadly. This makes new food safety developments especially

welcome. I recently heard about an intriguing one that might soon provide

an unusual and completely natural means of protecting certain foods, like

meats. These are edible food films -- if that term means nothing to you

(which is likely the case), picture those melt-in-your-mouth

" paper " strips of breath fresheners that have snatched away the

halitosis market from mouthwash, mints and chewing gum. Food films are

sort of like those -- and in other ways, very different.

Edible food films are not an entirely new phenomenon. For example,

Origami Foods in Pleasanton, California, working with the USDA

Agriculture Research Service, already makes carrot-, spinach-, lemon- and

apple-flavored films made from fruits, vegetables and spices, as an

alternative sushi wrapping for people who don't like seaweed (nori). As

sometimes happens, two seemingly disconnected ideas became a new avenue

for research... scientists wondered if such food-based films might be

used to protect against the microbes that invade food and make people

sick. At Rutgers University's New Brunswick campus, where scientists had

been working with polymers composed of bioactive molecules for medical

and dental applications, they began to explore how natural bioactive

molecules might be put to work in other ways.

Kathryn Uhrich, PhD, who heads the Rutgers lab, explained how her team

began to experiment with utilizing food-based molecules derived from

known antimicrobial plant and food extracts for food and food packaging.

These bacteria-fighting polymers could not only guard against food-borne

illness, but might also present an alternative to the antibiotics

currently used to protect against the development of disease in

meat-producing animals raised under crowded conditions. The hope is that

all this might be helpful in the battle against the growing menace of

drug-resistant bacteria.

GETTING TO WORK

The lab crew at Rutgers selected molecules from known anti-bacterial

spices, including thyme, cinnamon and clove extracts, to develop the

films. Polymers made with naturally occurring food molecules would then

be presumably safe for scientists to manipulate into useful forms of film

or powder. Plus they theorized that it might also be possible to use the

protective polymers to add flavor, say that of cloves, in a polymer wrap

on ham. Moisture, from humidity or water, degrades the antimicrobial

food-based polymers so diners who don't want the added flavor can simply

rinse away the wrap. Although a food-enhancing polymer is not yet proven,

Dr. Uhrich says she sees no reason it wouldn't work.

Dr. Uhrich says the technology is already in place and safety testing is

currently underway for food-derived polymer powders that can protect

meats and deli foods, in the hope of soon bringing them to market. This

could be an important development, since the process of taking meats from

prep to packaging makes it especially vulnerable to outside contaminants,

Dr. Uhrich says.

IT'S A WRAP

These food-film polymers may eventually be adapted into a plastic wrap to

protect food and leftovers at home, as well as for wraps and sprays to

protect a wide variety of other foods. The USDA is hard at work getting

this technology to prove effective against E. coli, but for the

time being that question remains unanswered. In labs around the US,

scientists are studying other food-derived molecules, including from milk

proteins, shrimp and crab shells to manipulate them into a variety of

polymer forms. Clearly the scientific and marketing communities view the

technology as promising... and if safety and performance are proven, we

can expect to soon see food protecting our food.

Source(s):

Kathryn Uhrich, PhD, Professor of Chemistry, Rutgers University, New

Brunswick, New Jersey.