It’s still just a student project. But on paper, the idea seems in any case clever to reduce food waste. As part of their studies, students from the National School of Chemistry in Rennes were invited to work on the way we cooked at home and on ways to improve the practice. Leaving aside utensils, one of the groups became interested in the preservation of fruits and vegetables. Foods that it is better to consume quickly to take full advantage of their flavors and their nutritional qualities, but also to avoid molds which take malicious pleasure in inviting themselves into fridges and fruit baskets.
To prevent these nasty fungi from attacking strawberries or tomatoes, future chemists have devised a spray to keep fruits and vegetables longer. “It’s not a miracle product that will keep them for several weeks but at least a few more days,” says Louis-Benoît Ars, enrolled in the first year of the engineering cycle.
Protective, biodegradable and edible
Still at the concept stage, their project, winner of the first prize, is based on the use of chitosan, a substance derived from chitin, which is found in particular in the shells of shrimp and crustaceans. Mixed in water with lactic acid then vaporized using the spray, chitosan will create a kind of protection around the food, making it impermeable to external gases. “Its antifungal properties prevent any premature oxidation of fruits and vegetables”, emphasizes Lou Estines.
This protective film also has the advantage of retaining water inside the plants, thus delaying their drying out. “It’s also biodegradable and completely harmless, it can be eaten without risk to health,” reassures Auriane Mabille. In viticulture, chitosan is also beginning to be used a little to protect the vines.
A project that could interest industrialists
Submitted to the National Institute of Intellectual Property (Inpi), the innovative concept of these students from Rennes is not limited to the chemical compound. The latter have indeed drawn up a business plan for this spray project which, if it sees the light of day, could be sold for around fifteen euros in stores with a refill system in the form of pods. “We will see at the end of our studies if one of us is motivated to develop this product, but it is in any case motivating, as a project”, underlines Auriane Mabille. Manufacturers could also be interested in this zero waste project.
Since 2018, the American company Apeel Sciences, in which have invested celebrities like Oprah Winfrey or Katy Perry, also markets an edible preservative made from peelings and seeds to preserve fruits and vegetables. According to its managing director James Rogers, it would “double the shelf life of the product. »