It's a Wrap: Edible Thin Packaging Coming Soon
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 04.18.08
William Vanderson, Getty Images
The idea of edible packaging has been around for a while; TreeHugger has shown a few starch-based ideas. However, most break down in the presence of water so they have to be made fairly thick. At the University of Manitoba, scientists have mixed pea starch with beeswax to make a thin film edible packaging that is water resistant, so instead of throwing out the wrapper 'round your Big Mac, you can just cut it up and add some salad dressing. No word from inventor Jung Han about how it tastes.
Fast food litter is a huge problem; it really would be wonderful if it was biodegradable ::Patent application here; via ::New Scientist See TreeHugger: BioBac: Biodegradable Textile Coating and "Eco-Packaging" Finalist: Co-op Corn Starch Bags
There is a fundamental problem with an edible rapper. The purpose of a package around food is to keep your food from contacting dirt and germs. If you are meant to eat the packaging, then the packaging will need its own rapping.
Now, composting, that's cool, but paper already composts really well.
Biodegradable and recycl(ed/able) are good, but I don't see the point of edible. Part of packagings' job is to keep your food clean so you wouldn't want to eat the packaging with all the dust, dirt, and germs that it kept off your food.
this sounds cool, but i think most people would still throw it away if it came wrapped around their burger because it would be considered dirty and couldn't be eaten. Wrapping around things like burgers are to offer the consumer at least a semblence of protection and cleanliness, etc (at least in Western societies).
However, that said, this would be completely awesome for another favorite packaging type - cheese singles (etc). instead of unwrapping each slice, just put the whole thing on your sandwich! the wrappings could come in useful flavors, like mayonaise or ranch dressing (my hubby puts in on everything, so i'm sure there are plenty of people who would appreciate it too!
:D
I'm pretty sure the point is that they're biodegradable not edible.
Edible packaging would be dirty, gross, and kind of stupid - you don't buy food for the packaging, you buy it for the food. Plus, it would be highly processed and an additonal unecessary part of a meal that would just make our current culture of overeating on unenvironmentally friendly crap more prevalent.
Biodegradable all the way, but get out of here with this edible stuff.
Making them out of beeswax can't be very cheap... or nice to the bees... although they would be "sustainable", it would be like making shoes out of leather. One could just not use a wrapper, or wrap it in lettuce; I dunno. It's not hard to grow lettuce actually... it wouldn't be watertight or anything but still.
I'm sure that it could be made out of a better material. Or better yet, when shipping foodstuffs one could just use reusable containers that don't require wrapping at the store. This seems like a good idea, but rather impractical, just like the idea of wrapping your burgers in paper. =/
Whats wrong with the packaging being water soluble? I would think for alot of purposes that would fine.
This has the potential to truly suck for some of us. I have celiac disease, and if that starch comes from wheat, barley, or rye, it will render the food inedible to me. I know folks that are allergic to corn, and are now having a helluva time with the new corn starch plastic we are seeing in the grocery stores.
Do you think edible coating as sustainable packaging?
if yes could you please explain this to me so.
Do you think edible coating as sustainable packaging?
if yes could you please explain this to me so.