Imagine an Americanised version of sushi: cooked pork or chicken surrounded by a 100% vegetable-based wrapping similar to nori, the seaweed strip traditionally used for sushi.
This is but one of the uses that scientist Tara McHugh envisions for the edible food wrappings that she has developed for the United States Department of Agriculture’s research agency.
McHugh will be presenting her vegetable and fruit wrappings or ”films”, as she calls them, at the annual meeting of the Institute of Food Technologists in New Orleans in mid-July, and hopes that the wrappings will be commercialised within the next year.
”The real benefits are from the marketing … and nutritional standpoints,” said McHugh.
”The films improve convenience and increase the consumption of fruits and vegetables.”
The films are made from vegetable or fruit puree that is diluted with water, and then are laid out on a flat surface to dry at room temperature. Anything from broccoli to peaches can be used.
The wrappings are about as thin as a sheet of paper, but are not as strong as paper or plastic. Their resistance to moisture and water is also rather low, McHugh said, even though that could be remedied if lipids or fats were added to the recipe.
Nevertheless, focus groups have reacted positively to the product, McHugh said. The biggest appeal is the wrappings’ nutritional values and their bright colours.
”They are also kind of fun and novel,” McHugh said.
The wrappings could be used to create small fruit and vegetable strips fortified with minerals and vitamins that would be comparable to existing mint strips. The film could also be melted over meat products in the oven, covering them with a glaze and infusing them with flavour. A tomato-based film covering a bowl of
pasta could also be melted over the noodles when heated up.
The USDA has started cooperating with commercial partners to prepare the wrappings for marketing. McHugh has been working on this project for five years, but her laboratory’s recent purchase of equipment to test the mass-production of wrapping rolls has brought them one step closer to being sold.
The wrappings would probably cost just as much as nori, McHugh said, but they would be ”considerably more expensive” than their plastic rival.
”Our hope is that the nutritional advantages will outweigh the costs,” McHugh said. – Sapa-DPA