An initiative by IIT Madras to protect our Environment

There is good news in the air in the month of October 2020.

Some Researchers at IIT (Indian institute of Technology) of Madras lead by Professor Mukesh Doble (Department of Biotechnology) with Miss Puja Kumari (Research scholar) have developed a food wrapping material which has in-built anti-bacterial compound and biodegradable as well.

They have won 'SITARE- Gandhian Young Technological Innovation Appreciation 2020’ and filed patent for this wrapper.

According to team, their main issue to resolve "Solid waste and Food contamination during storage due to bacterial growth. 

The wrapping material is made up of polymeric blends containing starch, polyvinyl alcohol, cyclic beta glycans (CBG). They have tested this wrapping material with paneer, meat and chicken, placed in 4 degrees Celsius and 30 degrees Celsius for 10 days and found that 99.99% reduced in bacterial colony.

Major point is that Paneer need Cold storage unit as it has less shelf life (less than 7 days) but with this wrapping material its life is increases. 

Our environment face these two problem very seriously so as we get this we can rid on these two problem. Solid waste is big big problem for our environment as annually around 300 million tonnes of plastic waste is produced and only 9% of all plastic waste is recycled. An estimated after eating contaminated food 600 million – almost 1 in 10 people in the world – fall ill and around 4.2 lakh die annually.