Scientists create vanillin by transforming waste of plastic bottles. Synthetic vanillin is widely used in the food industry over natural vanilla to give vanilla smell and aroma
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Saturday, November 2
Vanilla essence: in the future it could be made with plastic bottles
Scientists have managed to convert plastic waste into synthetic vanillin. Vanilla or at least artificial vanillin is widely used as a flavoring in the food industry. It is added to many foods and beverages such as ice cream, cookies, breads, cakes, coffee, soft drinks, and spirits. The aroma that we have identified in memory as vanilla would be that of synthetic vanillin, according to experts.
Vanillin is the main component of vanilla beans and is responsible of the characteristic flavor and smell of vanilla that we know. Although creating a synthetic vanilla flavoring is not new, it is novel that it comes from PET.
The way in which researchers at the University of Edinburgh achieved converting a used plastic bottle to vanillin was by adding laboratory-designed E. coli bacteria to plastic waste degraded.
Researchers consider that the vanillin produced would be fit for human consumption, but they note that further experimental testing is required.
Synthetic vanillin over natural vanilla
Most edible products contain vanillin and not vanilla . “That aroma that we have so well recorded and identified in our memory as vanilla, is none other than that of synthetic vanillin. Ethics ”, published by Ciencia UNAM belonging to the National Autonomous University of Mexico.
Synthetic vanillin is obtained from chemical reactions of materials such as tree bark, Natural vanilla is produced from the fruit of the Vanilla planifolia orchid.
Araceli Pérez Silva, researcher at the Technological Institute of Tuxtepec and vanilla specialist, explains that the common origin of synthetic vanillin causes only one odor to be released , On the other hand, the orchid pods can offer different aromatic profiles formed not only by natural vanillin, but by the concentrations of different volatile compounds.
Reduced waste to create a high demand product
The method recycling plastic bottles to create a vanillin is a “green chemistry demonstration”, it is a way to contribute to a need for recycling in basic products in high demand and with a lower environmental impact.
Vanillin is not only used in food and cosmetics , is also used in the manufacture of herbicides, antifoam agents and cleaning products. Global demand for vanillin exceeded 37, 000 tons in 2018, according to data shared by the University of Edinburgh.
The Guardian notes that plastics lose around 95% of its value as a material after a single use. Meanwhile he 85% of vanillin is currently synthesized from chemicals derived from fossil fuels.
Scientists who created PET transformant vanilla flavoring with bacteria E . coli also plan to increase production and look for other useful molecules besides vanillin that could be obtained with this method.
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