• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Engineering Designer Magazine

Engineering Designer

  • Home
  • Technology
  • Education
  • Sustainability
  • Materials
  • Medical
  • Construction
  • Advertise
  • iED
You are here: Home / Materials / Plant-based spray-on material could spell the end of plastic food wrap

Plant-based spray-on material could spell the end of plastic food wrap

August 11, 2022 by Geordie Torr

Scientists at Rutgers University in New Jersey and Harvard University in Massachusetts have developed an environmentally friendly alternative to plastic food wrap – a biodegradable, plant-based coating that can be sprayed onto foods, protecting them against pathogenic and spoilage microorganisms, and transportation damage.

‘We knew we needed to get rid of the petroleum-based food packaging that is out there and replace it with something more sustainable, biodegradable and nontoxic,’ said Philip Demokritou, director of the Nanoscience and Advanced Materials Research Center and the Henry Rutgers chair in nanoscience and environmental bioengineering at the Rutgers School of Public Health and Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute. ‘And we asked ourselves at the same time, “Can we design food packaging with a functionality to extend shelf life and reduce food waste while enhancing food safety?”

Advertisement

‘What we have come up with is a scalable technology that enables us to turn biopolymers, which can be derived as part of a circular economy from food waste, into smart fibres that can wrap food directly,’ he continued. ‘This is part of new generation, “smart” and “green” food packaging.’

The new packaging material is produced using a process called focused rotary jet spinning, in which stringy polysaccharide/biopolymer-based fibres are spun from a heating device that resembles a hair dryer and used to ‘shrink-wrap’ foods of various shapes and sizes, from avocados to sirloin steak.The resulting material is sturdy enough to prevent bruising.

Advertisement

The fibres are laced with naturally occurring antimicrobial ingredients – thyme oil, citric acid and nisin – that fight spoilage and pathogenic microorganisms such as E. coli and listeria.The researchers have demonstrated that the coating, which can be rinsed off with water and degrades in soil within three days, extends the shelf life of avocados by 50 per cent.

The research has been published in Nature Food.

Filed Under: Materials, Sustainability

Primary Sidebar

SUBSCRIBE And get a FREE Magazine

Want a FREE magazine each and every month jam-packed with the latest engineering and design news, views and features?

ED Update Magazine

Simply let us know where to send it by entering your name and email below. Immediate access.

Trending

The world’s smallest, fastest, power-autonomous bipedal robot

Winner of low-carbon footbridge design contest announced

Student engineers build safer, low-cost satellite thruster

Tiny robot team could be a game-changer for safety inspections

New technology helps high-rise buildings ride out earthquakes

Individual layers of synthetic materials can collaborate for greater impact

Fire-safety engineering delivers lifesaving value

Proposed international standard could revolutionise industrial design

Engineers design high-performing heat exchanger with a twist

Robotic dog mimics mammals for superior mobility on land and in water

Footer

About Engineering Designer

Engineering Designer is the quarterly journal of the Insitution of Engineering Designers.

It is produced by the IED for our Members and for those who have an interest in engineering and product design, as well as CAD users.

Click here to learn more about the IED.

Other Pages

  • Contact us
  • About us
  • Privacy policy
  • Terms
  • Institution of Engineering Designers

Search

Tags

ied

Copyright © 2025 · Site by Syon Media