Pea Protein as a transparent and edible film for the kitchen – Xampla
Cookable stock cube wrapper
Marc Rodríguez Garcia, CTO at Xampla writes…
I’m better used to science labs and academic conferences than kitchens and consumer launches as a protein scientist. But this week, the preferably of our products will be shipped to the paying public for the first time. It’s a cookable stock cube wrapper.
Recipe box company Gousto has our product in its deliveries as part of their box for making Indian Spiced Carrot & Lentil Soup. The client would once have taken a stock cube from a plastic or foil wrapper; they will directly drop the whole item – wrapping and all – into the soup.
This detailed consumer understanding results from 15 years of Cambridge-based research into the fundamental learning of how proteins can be shaped into valuable materials, such as transparent and flexible films—an excellent single-use plastic option made from common food ingredients such as pea protein.
Protein Flexible Film
Following a full year of creative development and formulation, functioning closely with Gousto, Xampla’s edible and cookable films are the first plant protein film in the world to go to market. Their potential goes well beyond stock cubes to usage across the food and drink sector. It will tell brands that can still present customers the advantages of plastic in protecting the shelf life of a product without damaging the environment.
With 855 billion plastic films thrown away each year – sufficiently to wrap the whole earth’s exterior – the demand for a sustainable substitute could scarcely be more critical. Most sachets cannot be economically recycled: they end up in landfills or polluting the soils and the seas.
Future of Ketchup and Mayonnaise Packaging
Our stock cube wrapping shows the opportunity that – for example – the universal ketchup and mayonnaise sachet could soon evolve edible alongside its contents. And if customers don’t cook or consume the sachets, they can put them in the food waste bin.
Customers are increasingly creating options about what they buy based on the sustainability of a product or usefulness. The majority like to lower their plastic use, and single-use plastics, in specific, are increasingly unacceptable. In a current survey, 65 percent of customers said there aren’t enough plastic-free choices on request for the products they buy, despite attempting to avoid plastic packaging where feasible. Fully 86 percent try to bypass plastic packaging at least occasionally.
Our assignment is to perform with the big brands to help them fulfill this consumer demand. Xampla’s customer-led strategy is about apprehending potential clients to keep their food products fresh and mesh with existing manufacturing processes.
Cutting-edge technology
We are fortunate to satisfy not just from cutting-edge technology and research but from a team of technical and commercial professionals, many of whom have come from the enterprises Xampla is working with. Each product we create goes through an in-depth trial and testing approach, prioritizing the client’s demand and the end consumer’s needs in what we propose.
We decline to compromise either on customer experience or on the end life of our product. Xampla’s packaging will always safeguard its contents as brands and consumers expect, but will always be made from entirely natural or edible materials, safely breaking down if they reach the natural environment.
It has been a delight working on this product with Gousto, showing the potential of this technology through stock cubes. The company is a fellow B-Corp, with sustainability at its heart: a current analysis by environmental services company Foodsteps indicated that dinners from Gousto already produce 23% fewer carbon emissions than comparable meals from supermarket stores. Gousto shares our values, and we can use our scientific excellence to help them deliver their sustainability goals.
COP26 highlights just how global the movement away from polluting industries is and how all countries and industries are engaging in the most significant trend of our generation – sustainability. Our launch is the first step for Xampla on the route to delivering solutions in all sectors to the harm caused by single-use and microplastic.
How edible packaging material for future sustainable growth?
