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Edible packaging and the future of bottled water April 27, 2016 Siyuan Water Chief Social Officer, Yihong Lan
2 1 Introduction
Close encounter with China’s Water Crisis: Only 3 out of 50 water samples we collected met national drinking water safety standards 298 million people in rural China do not have access to clean drinking water(a)
(a) Ministry of Health, China
A social enterprise focused on water projects: • Water testing
• Survey studies
• Water safety workshops
• Water filtration units
We plan to implement our water projects into 23 economically underdeveloped counties in Fujian Bringing clean water to 418 schools, 170,000 students with our nanofiltration technology
6 2 Why bottled water?
Why bottled water?
Why not bottled water?
Is it possible to go plastic free?
Spherification is the culinary process of shaping a liquid into spheres usually using sodium alginate and either calcium chlorate or calcium glucate lactate, which visually and texturally resemble roe. The technique was originally discovered by Unilever in the 1950s (Potter 2010, p. 305) and brought to the modernist cuisine by the creative team at elBulli under the direction of executive chef Ferran Adrià.
Simple, cheap (2ct/unit)(a), resistant, hygienic, biodegradable and even edible
(a) Based on manufacturing cost of Ooho – The edible water blob by Skipping Rock Labs
17 3 Live experiment
A Formation of Hydrogels Using Sodium Alginate & Calcium Lactate
1. 1 g of sodium alginate (a natural substance derived from brown seaweed)
2. 5 g of food-grade calcium lactate (a type of salt that can be found commonly in cheese and gum)
3. A bowl filled with 1 cup of drinking water 4. Another bowl filled with 4 cups of water 5. Another bowl filled with water for rinsing off
the "bottles" 6. An immersion blender (you could also use a
regular blender) - A deep spoon like a measuring spoon
STEP 1: Add 1 g of sodium alginate to 1 cup of water. Then use an immersion blender to dissolve the sodium alginate. Once you're confident that it's dissolved, set the mixture aside to get rid of any air bubbles that may have formed during blending. Wait 15 minutes.
STEP 2: Add 5 g of calcium lactate to 4 cups of water and mix well using a spoon.
STEP 3: Scoop up some of your sodium alginate solution using a deep spoon. Very carefully plop the sodium alginate into the calcium lactate bath. Repeat with the remaining sodium alginate but do not crowd the bath.
STEP 4: Stir the sodium alginate bubbles very gently for 3 minutes.
STEP 5: After 3 minutes, remove the "bottles" from the calcium lactate bath using a slotted spoon and transfer them to a water bath to stop the reaction.
The chemistry behind Spherification
• The chemical principles put simply are as follows: Sodium alginate is water soluble and can be mixed with many different fruit/vegetable juices and purés. When dripped into a solution containing calcium ions, each calcium ion (which holds a charge of +2) knocks away two sodium ions (each holding a charge of +1). The alginate molecule contains loads of hydroxyl groups (OH’s) that can be coordinated to cations (that’s ions with a positive charge such as sodium and calcium)
• When alginate is coordinated to sodium, it’s a very flexible chain. When sodium is replaced by calcium however, each calcium ion (black dots in the image above) coordinates to two alginate chains, linking them together. The flexible chains become less flexible and form a huge network – a gel. This happens within seconds after the alginate mixture is dripped into the water bath with the calcium ions
25 4 Edible packaging and bottled water
In an ideal, eco-friendly world, disposable plastic water bottles wouldn’t exist; everyone would drink their water from a reusable cup or bottle. But in reality, Americans alone drink more than 73 billion half-liter water bottles each year, according to the nonprofit Environmental Working Group – enough to circle the planet more than 370 times
Will this unique waste-free packaging catch on with bottled water manufacturers?
This quirky globe of water has a few conundrums to sort out before it hits the marketplace: • Can you transport it in your bag or backpack without piercing its
membrane and spilling water? • Is there a way to drink from it without water trickling out onto your
clothes and body? • Can companies produce a water sphere large enough to compete
with those super-sized plastic bottles? • How to keep the package clean before you drink from it and
potentially eat it.
