IIT Madras developed antimicrobial food wrapping material

Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, has developed an antimicrobial food wrapping material. The team of researchers led by Professor Mukesh Doble of the Department of Biotechnology in the institute has said in a release, the novel material is biodegradable and can prevent the contamination of packaged food by bacteria during storage.

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 It can reduce the plastic waste when disposing the wrappers. He said, it does not cause any toxicity to the food material. It is made of starch, polyvinyl alcohol and other safe polymers.

The anti-bacterial wrapper when disposed degrades four to 98 per cent within 21 days, depending on the moisture in the environment.

An estimate says that around 30 crore tonnes of plastic waste are generated every year. Only nine per cent of all the plastic waste gets recycled and about twelve percent incinerated.

Further, an estimated 60 crore, or almost one in ten people in the world fall ill after eating contaminated food.