The designer created what she believes is the first food made from plastic waste as part of her final project at Central Saint Martins.
Photo by Mael Henaff
“This ice cream looks like it is made of plastic.” As of today or in the near future, this will no longer be a negative judgment, but rather a “normal” observation. At least loudly Designers Eleonora Ortolani. Student of the master’s program “Material Futures” at the design school, actually worked with scientists to precisely remove a small amount of plasticdisassemble it in the laboratory and transform it into nothing less than Vanilla flavor molecule.
Then I did that transformed vanillin into the food most associated with flavor: ice cream. The idea for the work entitled Guilty Flavors, arose from Ortolani’s frustration while observing how designers are currently using recycled plastic. In fact, they often see that this results in products that can no longer be recycled because the plastic has now fused with resin or other materials.
We are actually making things worse by selling these parts as a solution to the plastic problem,” Ortolani said.
How to get rid of plastic
Photo by Mael Henaff
Is there a way for people to stop eating plastic and eliminate it forever? His project began with this question. A vision that, frankly, we thought could be essentially speculative.
“I never thought I could actually make food out of plastic,” she said. “And it was difficult for me to find a scientist who was really interested in working on it.”
But in the end he found it the head of the food science course at London Metropolitan University Hamid Ghoddusi, and through him the researcher Joanna Sadler. In particular His team at the University of Edinburgh actually used genetically modified bacteria to synthesize vanillin from plastic.
Synthetic vanillin, properties and origin
Photo by Mael Henaff
Synthetic vanillin is already often sold and consumed in supermarkets as a cheaper alternative to natural vanilla. But where does it come from and how is it made? Crude oil is usually used. In fact, this material has the same fossil fuel origin as plastic.
Ortolani explained Scientists developed an enzyme that was later introduced into bacteria to allow them to break strong bonds between molecules in the structure of plastic as part of its metabolic process. Another enzyme then synthesized these unrelated molecules into vanillin.
As soon as the first enzymes break the chain, the material can no longer be identified as plastic – Ortolani continues – It is not even a polymer, but an element.
However, the product of this process should not be confused with microplastics, which are still plastic at the molecular level.
Microplastics look like a molecule, but are actually a very small piece of plastic, Ortolani said. “It hasn’t gone through the critical next step of turning it into something else. That is, the separation.
The future of plastic vanillin
Photo by Mael Henaff
Although the molecule may be chemically identical to existing synthetic vanillin, It is considered a completely new ingredient by food safety authorities Scientists will not allow you to try it until it has passed all the tests to declare it safe.
So instead of eating it, Ortolani presented ice cream in a locked refrigerator at the CSM graduate exhibition and hopes his project will spark a discussion about what we view as natural or synthetic and how these perceptions could hinder our food security goals in times of climate change.
Eleonora Ortolani’s plastic ice cream: photos and pictures
