Five students from the University of Hohenheim (Alena Fries, Bahar Abrishamchi, Cora Schmetzer, Lina Obeidat and Paulina Welzenbach) wanted to prevent the small plastic bags that contain individual ingredients in many instant foods such as ramen noodle soup, an environmentally harmful waste. A sustainable film based on eggshells and plant proteins was developed that can be dissolved in hot water and is edible.
Adequate packaging is essential to protect products from contamination during transportation. Packaging can be used to divide food and insulate it from light, oxygen and moisture. This greatly increases shelf life and reduces food waste. However, despite the fundamentally positive effects of packaging materials, most of them should be avoided as much as possible because of their negative impact on the environment.
Starting with chopped eggshells, the team produced a liquid mixture by adding various ingredients, which were then poured into a mold to form a film. After drying, the resulting film is analyzed and the production process is optimized. Finally, its composition is very simple: the new packaging consists only of eggshells, vegetable protein, adhesives and water. It is transparent and flexible, yet still fairly tear-resistant and can be processed into sealed pouches using a standard film sealer. But that's not all: this less-than-1-millimeter-thick film is also water-soluble and safe to eat, as it contains only food-compatible ingredients.
One area of everyday use was quickly identified: the popular instant ramen noodle soup. In addition to hanging noodles, instant noodles always contain pouches filled with spices and other ingredients, often made from environmentally harmful plastics. "Our packaging dissolves when hot water is added and also provides protein," Welzenbach said. "A sustainable alternative with added value." While plant proteins are not waste, the resources for producing the innovative packaging are quite low overall. The students intentionally took this aspect into account during the development process and scrutinized every step. The team's name, EDGGY, makes this clear: it is a combination of cutting-edge research and raw material eggs.
"However, at the moment our films are only suitable for dry products and cannot be used as overpacks," explains Schmetzer. "This is possible in principle, but we still have a lot of research to do, especially for overpacks that need to be handled a lot and have to meet higher standards of stability and impermeability."
"But we didn't just want to replace ordinary plastic packaging materials, we wanted our product to go further," Abrishamchi says, describing the thought process. "We wanted it to be a real solution to a problem, not just a nice, innovative accessory to an existing product line."
The EDGGY team is currently competing in the BioInnovation Student Challenge Europe (BISC-E ), and with their film came second in the German qualifying round. So the success story continues and hopefully will soon be on the shelves of supermarkets.
