Brazilian researchers turn fruit into edible plastic

Most of us use tons of plastic in the kitchen from food packaging and wraps. And that creates a lot of plastic waste, which is extremely polluting, taking around 400 years to decompose. With this in mind and looking to preserve natural resources, Brazilian researchers have developed an edible plastic film which can be produced from several types of food, like fruit, vegetables, and spices. The research was conducted in the nanotechnology laboratory of the Brazilian Corporation of Agricultural Research (Embrapa).

Instead of petroleum, this new material is made of fruits and vegetables. Among the raw materials already used by them are beets, papaya, passion fruit, guava, spinach, and tomatoes. So they are also helping to reduce food waste by using the overly ripe produce that otherwise would most likely end up in the trash. The new material combines the flexibility of synthetic plastics with the nutritional properties of the produce.

The film can conserve food for double the time of conventional plastic, and it is also three times more resistant. The “plastic” is edible and biodegradable, since it decomposes within three months and can be even used as fertilizer.