Baked goods are at the top of the food waste categories that most negatively contribute to the environmental footprint. Stale bread waste mainly consists of starch, gluten and arabynoxylans with huge potential for utilization as something of higher value than a mere source of fermentable sugars: as building blocks of future bio-based and biodegradable materials.
We will aim at investigating organocatalytic routes for crosslinking bread polymers into 100 % biodegradable films with good water resistivity and mechanical properties. This project will require a literature review, pilot scale testing (polymer derivatization and film processing), and analysis of material properties.
The project is aligned to UN's SGD:
