Progress toward edible plastics

摘要

USE of plastics in everyday life is increasing and we are unable to dispose of plastics in an environmental friendly nature. Use of plastics as excessive packaging material and its discard is building up somewhere in the environment. There's a lot of interest in edible food packaging. The problem right now for consumers is with taste, texture, and appearance. Researchers have to come up with a menu of delicious skins and even more delicious flesh. If edible plastics can replace a large portion of that then it's excellent news for our environment. Plastics have been used in food packaging for years. Sometimes a tub of ice cream or a pot of yoghurt is so tasty that we spend several minutes scraping out the inside and then, if nobody's looking, lick the lid. Wouldn't it be even better if we could simply eat the lot, container and all? It would cut down on the amount of waste we produce and the enjoyment of our food would last that little bit longer. For years, people have been taking soluble pill capsules and recently, dissolvable strips to sweeten breath and whiten teeth are on market shelves.