WikiCells: Bottles that could be EATEN once you've drunk what's inside

by Deborah Corn
Consumables, Marketing, Packaging, Tools, Trends

This is from The Daily Mail but I did include other references since that is not one of my “go-to” sources for news and information.

Future bottles could be eaten after scientists developed an edible material that can taste like the drink inside.

The product, a membrane created using a biodegradable plastic combined with food particles, could either be peeled off or potentially eaten whole. So far, experts at Harvard University have filled an orange membrane with orange juice, a tomato-flavored enclosure with gazpacho and grape packages with wine. They have not yet created a bottle with the WikiCells but biomedical engineer Dr David Edwards hopes to create a prototype soon.

WHAT IS EDIBLE MATERIAL?

The edible material is called WikiCells and is created from a biodegradable polymer – or plastic – and food particles. Essentially, it is an egg-like membrane hard shell. It can be filled with a variety of flavours, including orange juice, wine or chocolate. It could form either a layer that you could peel off a bottle – or, one day, make the entire container.

To begin with, Professor David Edwards, from Harvard’s Wyss Institute, plans to develop it as a novelty item for restaurants. But he hopes to produce a WikiCell machine that could allow people – especially those in rural parts of the developing world – to make their own bottles without relying on plastic.

Eventually, he hopes to develop a WikiCells machine that would allow individuals to produce their own edible bottles.

Continues at: WikiCells: Bottles that could be EATEN once you’ve drunk what’s inside | Mail Online.