Eco-Friendly Food Packaging Material Developed by IIT Kharagpur Researcher
Chennai, Nov 19: A team of researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur have designed bio degradable packaging material using cucumber peels. They said that the cucumber peels have great cellulose in the cell walls of plants) content. The cellulose nano-crystals derived from these peels can be used for making food packaging material. It also has low oxygen permeability
to penetrate).
In India, cucumbers are widely used in salads, pickles, and other
products, so, it creates a residual waste of about 12 percent after
processing either the peels or whole slices as waste.
This waste is processed and the celluloses, hemicelluloses (a poly carbohydrate of plant cell wall), and pectin extracted from the processed material is used as eco-friendly food packaging material. Thus a renewable, environment friendly alternative for single use plastic has been found.