IIT-Kharagpur Invents Eco-Friendly Food Packaging Material With Cucumber Peels

Cucumber peels are no longer a waste after researchers from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur developed eco-friendly food packaging using these peels.

According to the team of researchers, cucumber peels have greater cellulose content than other peel waste. Cellulose nanocrystals derived from these peels can be used for making food packaging material which is biodegradable and has low oxygen permeability.

“While single-use plastic is consciously being avoided by consumers, they still remain largely in circulation as food packaging items. Natural biopolymers are unable to make their way in this industry as they lack strength, elongation, barrier property, optical property, and in some cases even biological safety,” said Jayeeta Mitra, Assistant Professor, IIT Kharagpur.

Representational Image

“In India, cucumber finds wide use in salads, pickles, cooked vegetables or (is even) consumed raw and also in the beverage industry, leading to a large volume of peel biowaste which is rich in cellulose content.

“Cucumbers generate about 12 per cent residual wastes obtained after processing either the peels or whole slices as waste. We have used the celluloses, hemicellulose, pectin extracted from this processed material for deriving new bio-materials which are useful as nano-fillers in bio-composites,” she told news agency PTI.

Talking about the findings of the research, Mitra said, “Our study shows that cellulose nanocrystals derived from cucumber peels possess modifiable properties due to the presence of abundant hydroxyl groups, which resulted in better biodegradability and biocompatibility.”

She added that such anocellulose materials emerged as strong, renewable and economic material of the near future due to unique properties like a high surface area to volume ratio, light in weight, and excellent mechanical properties. "Thereby, such nanocrystals, when reinforced as nano-fillers in bio-composites films, can produce effective food packaging materials with low oxygen permeabilities,” she said.

The packaging material developed from cucumber peels is non-toxic, biodegradable and biocompatible product that has no adverse effects on health and environment.