Indian researchers would produce packaging material from cucumber peel

Do not throw away the cucumber peel! Packaging material can still be good. Researchers at the Kharagpur Institute of Technology (IIT) in India have created cellulose nanocrystals from high-cellulosic cucumber peel suitable for the production of food packaging materials. Disposable plastics are already consciously avoided by consumers, but for the most part these plastics remain on the market as part of food packaging. Natural biopolymers are not really usable in this industry because their strength, elongation, optical properties, and in some cases even food safety properties make them unsuitable for food packaging. Prof. Jayeeta Mitra N. Sai Prasanna EE Times India. In India, cucumbers are a versatile vegetable, used in salads, pickles, and cooked or eaten raw. But it is also processed by the beverage industry, which generates large amounts of bio-waste from the cucumber peel, which is very rich in cellulose. About 12% of your cucumber will be waste, consisting of the peel or ...