Regensburg native spends a year tinkering in her kitchen - and invents edible packaging for food
Created: 02/21/2022, 18:33
By: Tanja Kipke
Amelie Graf experimented in her own kitchen for a year and invented the "Meal Bag".
© Amelie Graf
A Regensburg designer has developed food packaging that can be eaten after it has served its purpose.
Does the product save us from the plastic flood?
Regensburg - The world is drowning in garbage.
Media reports repeatedly talk about so-called garbage strudels on the world's oceans or mountains of plastic waste in Third World countries.
According to the Federal Environment Agency, every citizen in Germany causes more than 200 kilograms of packaging waste every year.
Just over half of this is recycled.
Is edible food packaging the solution?
A Regensburg designer wants to use this to counteract plastic waste.
In her own kitchen she has developed an edible packaging for food.
In an interview with
Merkur.de
, Amelie Graf explains how she came up with the idea and in which dishes the "Meal Bag" tastes particularly good.
Regensburger develops edible packaging - "everything was created in my kitchen"
"It all started with my master's thesis at the University of the Arts in Berlin." The topic of the work was originally "matter and materiality".
Graf first focused on stone, crushing it and reassembling it with binding agents.
After some experiments, she looked for alternative, more sustainable binders.
"I then went further and took cellulose with me," she tells
Merkur.de
.
In the beginning, the designer experimented with epoxy resin.
© Amelie Graf
She found out that cellulose is used a lot in the food industry as a filler or structuring agent and is a pure dietary fiber.
So the material became edible.
The ingredients of the packaging: cellulose fibers and corn starch.
"The 'Meal Bag' is like food and packaging in one," explains Graf.
Amelie Graf (33) has developed edible packaging for food.
© Amelie Graf
Graf worked on her invention for a year and experimented almost every day - and that in her 10 square meter kitchen in Berlin-Neukölln.
"Most of the time I worked on it all day because I had to take breaks while the materials were drying so I could react to the result in the next attempt." It took around 150 attempts in total before she was satisfied with the "Meal Bag". was.
Graf carried out all the tests in her own kitchen.
© Amelie Graf
And where can the edible packaging be used in the future?
"You can pack all dry food in it." For example, pasta, rice, oatmeal or lentils, but also muesli and chips.
According to Graf, the "Meal Bag" has a certain moisture resistance, but it is not suitable for liquid or chilled products.
A sandwich with lots of sauce, for example, could dissolve the packaging.
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"Meal Bag" packaging can simply be put in the food
"If you boil the material and refine it with olive oil and tomato paste, you get a kind of fresh pasta sauce," says Graf.
But the "Meal Bag" is not only ideal as a sauce binder.
It is also “super good in porridge (oatmeal) because the ingredients are the same as in oatmeal.” So simply wash off the packaging, cut into pieces and add to the food.
Graf describes the taste as sweet, the consistency in the mouth as gummy bears: "A bit chewy, it slowly melts on the tongue." The "Meal Bag" is transparent with a slightly matt surface (see picture).
According to Graf, it is similar to silicone and feels soft, "something like fabric".
The "Meal Bag" is particularly suitable for dry foods such as pasta and oatmeal.
© Amelie Graf
If you don't like the packaging, you can simply dispose of it in the organic waste or on the compost.
After a short time, the "Meal Bag" will weather.
"I put it in the garden and the record time was 2 days," says the inventor.
“It is not only a nutrient for humans and animals, but also for microorganisms.
This then creates valuable hummus.” The production is just as complex as paper production.
And what's next for the "Meal Bag"?
The Regensburg native presents her development in July at the craft fair in Munich, in the category "Masters of the future".
The edible packaging could therefore soon be on the market.
(tkip)
