Benedetto Marelli and his teammates at MIT have discovered a method to naturally prolong the shelf life of foods. In the method, it was discovered that coating food with silk had a serious effect.

Benedetto Marelli, who worked as an assistant professor at the environmental engineering department at MIT, came across a book about the use of silk one day by chance while doing his post-doctoral study at Tufts University. When asked for each set to contain silk in the cooking contest for the universitys laboratory, Marelli accidentally forgot some strawberries wrapped in silk on her counter.

Realizing that the strawberries that were interacting with silk were still edible when she returned almost a week later, Marelli observed that the other strawberries were already spoiled. This situation had a shock effect on the researcher who had previously studied the biomedical applications of silk. Marelli realized that she could find a solution to the problem of food waste with this situation that she discovered by chance and started to work.

Benedetto Marelli, who is an associate professor at MIT, has decided to seek help from different scientists in this regard. Cambridge Crops, which includes these scientists, wanted to test and expand Marellis discovery.

The company aimed to develop products that would extend the shelf life for all easily perishable foods. Thanks to this discovery of the company, it is expected that the shelf life of the food will be prolonged and a solution to the problem of waste, which is of great importance. As a result, it will be possible to reach fresh food more easily.

As you know, while 10% of the worlds population is struggling with hunger, one third of the global food stock is unconsciously wasted every year. Food waste; It is a fact that it has a social and economic impact in developed and developing countries. Although many different technologies that we come across offer us solutions that will prolong the life of fresh foods, most of these solutions contain risks such as playing genetics with foods, and packaging materials and environmental hazards. We can say that this is often accompanied by high costs.

Marelli considers this situation as follows: To date, the vast majority of solutions developed on agricultural technologies and food have been based on genetic engineering, mechanical engineering, artificial intelligence, or computer science. However, nano materials and bio materials can be preferred instead.

According to Marelli, the use of silk can be an excellent opportunity for many problems faced by the food industry, and it can increase the shelf life of the foods without the need to change their essence. Marelli also stated that the food will not change in any way thanks to the coating of silk with flavors, smells and tissues. Allegedly, this practice can naturally increase the shelf life of foods by up to 200%.

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MIT Engineers Developed an Interesting Method to Extend the Shelf Life of Foods - Somag News