You come home with bagful of items from a nearby grocery store, ready to cook dinner. You unpack the meat, and proceed to slice the packaging into noodles. Yes, you read that right.
Slovak scientist Miroslava Kačániová from the Slovak University of Agriculture in Nitra is developing such packaging in cooperation with fellow scientists from Minsk, Belarus. Their goal is to create a new material based on starch, edible polymers, and plant additives.
Packaging made from this material should not only be biodegradable, but sustain the longevity of the meat as well. The idea is to make use of the antimicrobial effects of extracts from various herbs, that, in the end, would act to complement the taste of meat. Or any other food product for that matter, such as sweets.
Moreover, there is another added bonus - no waste. The huge amount of waste, not just from food itself, is a global problem. Such edible packaging could help immensely in this regard.
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The idea for edible packaging emerged in 2018. The original intention was to test antioxidant and antimicrobial additives based on medicinal plants and plant essential oils, but then Miroslava Kačániová was contacted by scientists from the University in Minsk whose research involves this type of packaging.
