EDIBLE BIOPOLYMER PACKAGING, ZERO-WASTE ALTERNATIVES FOR PRESERVATION AND CONSUMING POWDERED BEVERAGES

Refinement of consumer preferences made the food industry to develop new products, with improved characteristics, with openness to monocomponent products. Unfortunately, the preference for this type of products leads to high costs, especially due to the packaging used. International policies, and especially European ones, are looking for solutions to eliminate the hazardous waste for the environment. The present study discusses the development of a biopolymeric material intended for the packaging of powdered drinks, solubilized and consumed together with them. Based on a patent-pending composition of sodium alginate, agar, glycerol and water, the newly developed material has very good physical, mechanical and solubility properties, comparable to those of conventional packaging, often multilayered, difficult to sort and almost impossible to recycle. According to laboratory tests, the material dissolves completely in water at a temperature of 80 degrees. For the sensory analysis, 80 students from the food industry program constituted a group of panelists who tested soluble coffee with and without solubilized edible packaging. According to the results obtained after the application of two questionnaires, the panelists are open to consuming such materials and scored the attributes of the new product with good to very good scores. The results indicated the possibility of using biopolymer-based material for soluble coffee packaging. For the safety of the consumer and the increase of the product's shelf life, it is recommended that it be delivered in a secondary packaging, based on cardboard, in order to continue the initiative to respect the environment.