According to recent studies, edible food wrappers made from milk protein will replace the non-biodegradable plastic wrappers that are currently used.
Most foods sold at the grocery store are wrapped in plastic packaging to prevent spoilage of the food item. It is true that some of these are recyclable and but some, like the thin plastic wraps are not and these even leaches harmful compounds into food.
Scientists have now developed a new biodegradable, and food safe packaging film created from milk protein called casein. The wrappers created using this are not just edible but are also efficient in preventing food spoilage. According to the researchers, casein is a sustainable replacement of plastic film packaging. The milk based packaging compared to plastic packaging effectively protects food from oxygenation. Moreover, these are 500 times better than the regular plastic wrappers at keeping oxygen away from food.
Laetitia Bonnaillie, co-leader of the study and chemical engineer at USDA has said that casein gives a similar feeling like a plastic wrapper when one sees or hold it, but it is less stretchy and blocks oxygen, unlike plastic wrapper. Bonnaillie further added that their aim was to reduce waste.
The USDA started experimenting with plastic substitutes in order to utilize the excess stock of milk powder in the U.S. Although the prototype does not have any added flavor and is tasteless, the research group is working and predicts that the packaging could be changed further with added flavorings. The current material is edible and made almost entirely of proteins and nutritious additives including vitamins, probiotics and nutraceuticals might be included in future.
Well, it is not the first time that an alternative to traditional food packaging has been discovered. A burger chain in Brazil introduced edible wrappers and last year, in the UK, KFC brought in the cookie cups for serving coffee. However, these did not solve much of the problem.
The edible wrappers are however in the testing stage and it is expected that within the next three years, milk film will get into mass production.