Development of plant-based, dissolvable, edible, single-serve food and drink sachets to replace single-use plastic packaging

COVID-19只会加速上门送餐服务的上升趋势。单服务餐包提供最大的用户方便和减少食物浪费，通过提供个人预量的部分。通过控制膳食量，单餐套餐还可以在解决日益严重的肥胖问题、提供膳食卡路里计数的准确信息和鼓励营养均衡饮食方面发挥作用。然而，一次性餐食的便利性带来了重大的可持续性成本：一次性包装的增加，主要是一次性塑料袋。塑料袋通常由多层复合材料薄膜组成，被食物严重污染，几乎不可能回收利用。在全球范围内，我们每年消耗8550亿个一次性塑料袋。事实上，最近对品牌塑料废物的全球审计发现，一次性小袋是最常见的塑料废物。对于有现成替代品的一次性塑料（如一次性聚苯乙烯杯/盖、餐具、盘子、吸管），英国和欧盟已经出台了塑料禁令。尽管公众强烈支持禁止使用一次性塑料袋（活动组织“塑料星球”将其描述为“一时有用，几个世纪会造成污染”），但目前缺乏食品和饮料包装袋的替代品阻碍了禁令的实施。受大自然的启发，Xampla开发了一种由植物生产的下一代生物基和可生物降解材料。通过利用植物蛋白的自然自组装能力，我们创造了一类具有显著功能特性的新材料。这些可以用来生产一系列具有高度控制性能的材料，包括可溶解的薄膜，它可以被构造成单服务的小袋。我们的香囊完全由可食用材料制成，在烹饪过程中迅速溶解，不影响味道、气味或外观，提供零浪费的解决方案。在“创新英国”的支持下，我们将开发和扩大生物基和可溶解的一次性小袋的生产，以取代一次性塑料袋。我们将通过与英国领先的食谱盒供应商的消费者试验来证明我们的方法。该项目的产出将支持英国成为可持续包装领域世界领导者的雄心，显著影响2025年英国塑料公约目标1，并解决与消费品塑料包装相关的众所周知的问题。

COVID-19 has only accelerated the rising trend of at-home food delivery services. Single service meal kits offer maximum user convenience and minimise food waste through providing individual pre-measured portions. By controlling meal sizes, single service meal kits can also play a role in addressing rising levels of obesity, providing accurate information on meal calorie counts and encouraging a nutritionally balanced diet.However, the convenience of single-serve meal portions comes at a significant sustainability cost: an increase in single-use packaging, predominantly single-use plastic sachets. Plastic sachets are often composed of laminated multi-material films and are heavily contaminated with food, making them almost impossible to recycle. Globally, we consume 855 billion single-use plastic sachets annually. In fact, the most recent global audit of branded plastic waste found that single-use sachets were the most commonly found plastic waste.For single-use plastics with readily available alternatives (e.g., disposable polystyrene cups/lids, cutlery, plates, straws), plastics bans have already been introduced in the UK and the EU. Despite strong public support for a ban on single-use plastic sachets (described by campaign group A Plastic Planet as "useful for moments, polluting for centuries"), the lack of an alternative for food and drink sachets currently hinders the introduction of a ban.Inspired by nature, Xampla has developed a next-generation bio-based and biodegradable material produced from plants. By harnessing the natural ability of plant proteins to self-assemble, we have created a new class of materials with remarkable functional properties. These can be used to produce a range of materials with highly controlled properties, including dissolvable films, which can be structured into single-serve sachets. Our sachets are manufactured entirely from edible materials and dissolve rapidly during cooking, without affecting taste, smell, or appearance, providing a zero-waste solution.With Innovate UK support, we will develop and scale-up the manufacture of bio-based and dissolvable single-serve sachets as a replacement for single-use plastic sachets. We will prove our approach through consumer trials with a UK leading recipe box provider.The outputs from this project will support the UK's ambition to become a world leader in sustainable packaging, significantly impacting 2025 UK Plastics Pact target 1 and addressing widely known problems related to plastic packaging for consumer products.