An apple a day: Samara scientists invent edible packaging from fruit puree

03 Jul 2018 --- A team of scientists at Samara Polytech in Russia has created edible films consisting of only natural ingredients. The packaging is based on fruit or vegetable puree and low on caloric value. The project team had set out to improve the technologies of edible packaging production works in the Flagship University of the Samara region.

The product was initially designed for the nutritional diet of astronauts. According to the Head of the Project Team and the Head of Food Technology and Catering Department, Nadezhda Makarova, the project was aimed at the space menu modification: “We tried to create a packaging to store food, heat it, and then eat it along with food. Other sorts of packaging materials are inconvenient in space: it is difficult to dispose of them.”

As a result, Samara scientists invented a unique food wrap. There are already several examples of such a packaging but they are only conditionally edible. The analogs of the edible films consist not only of natural raw materials but also of artificial additives. Therefore, a human body is not able to fully digest it. Samara Polytech scientists created a packaging based on fruit or vegetable puree which consists of natural ingredients. Moreover, the product is very low on caloric value and can therefore be considered dietary.

The production technology is simple enough: fruit and vegetable puree is taken as a liquid mass with a plasticizer, and then the mass is dried at a temperature of no higher than 60 degrees Celsius. At higher temperatures, the packaging becomes too brittle. The Project Team members created more than 500 experimental edible films samples. The samples carry a high level of material strength and are able to compete with the materials obtained from cellulose. The Project Team is trying to patent their invention.

Production of food films can help in solving the problem of garbage disposal. The typical polyethylene wrap takes around 500 years to decompose while the edible packaging created at Samara Polytech decomposes as quickly as apples do.

The commercial popularity of biodegradable packaging is on the rise. Innova Market Insights reports a 40 percent increase in new food and beverage products packaged in bio-based/biodegradable material (CAGR 2013-2017). Meanwhile, a survey found that more than 35 percent of German consumers, 25 percent of UK consumers and more than 25 percent of US consumers consider bio-based and/or biodegradable/compostable packaging important in food and beverage choice (Innova Market Insights, 2015).

The edible packaging of Samara Polytech can be used beyond space venture. It has the potential to become indispensable in the Arctic territories, on offshore oil platforms and even during long journeys.

In addition, scientists are experimenting with raw fruit materials and developing apple dishware and cosmetic masks based on apples with the introduction of plant extracts.

In a similar creation, Roza Janusz, a graduate of the School of Form in Poznan, Poland, has reimagined packaging with SCOBY: an organic and sustainable material which can be eaten or composted after use. It is made of bacteria and yeast and grown through a fermentation process.

Read more about SCOBY and other recent biodegradable and compostable packaging solutions here.

By Joshua Poole