Food waste is a global problem with approximately 1.3 billion tons of food wasted each year throughout the food lifecycle—from the farm to food manufacturers and households.
, we have found a way to use food waste for making a versatile material known as nanocellulose. In particular, we used acid whey—a significant dairy production waste material that it usually difficult to dispose of.Nanocellulose is a biopolymer, which means it's a naturally produced long chain of sugars. It has remarkable properties—bacterial nanocellulose is strong, chemically stable and biocompatible, meaning it's not harmful to human cells.
We used a runny waste liquid known as acid whey from a local cheese manufacturer in Melbourne, Australia. In the dairy industry, acid whey is often disposed of as wastewater in large amounts , despite it being rich in carbohydrates and proteins. This is because it's hard to process into other products due to a high lactic acid content.
Over four days as our mixture fermented, the bacteria worked to create nanocellulose material which floated to the top. Lovers of home-brewed kombucha may actually be familiar with the raw nanocellulose material—it forms as a floating off-white structure called a pellicle. Some people already use this kombucha by-product asAn example of nanocellulose material that could be used for wound dressing. Credit: Shutterstock and is expected to grow to US$2 billion by 2030 .
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