Development of plant-based, dissolvable, edible, single-serve food and drink sachets to replace single-use plastic packaging

COVID-19 has only accelerated the rising trend of at-home food delivery services. Single service meal kits offer maximum user convenience and minimise food waste through providing individual pre-measured portions. By controlling meal sizes, single service meal kits can also play a role in addressing rising levels of obesity, providing accurate information on meal calorie counts and encouraging a nutritionally balanced diet.

However, the convenience of single-serve meal portions comes at a significant sustainability cost: an increase in single-use packaging, predominantly single-use plastic sachets. Plastic sachets are often composed of laminated multi-material films and are heavily contaminated with food, making them almost impossible to recycle. Globally, we consume 855 billion single-use plastic sachets annually. In fact, the most recent global audit of branded plastic waste found that single-use sachets were the most commonly found plastic waste.

For single-use plastics with readily available alternatives (e.g., disposable polystyrene cups/lids, cutlery, plates, straws), plastics bans have already been introduced in the UK and the EU. Despite strong public support for a ban on single-use plastic sachets (described by campaign group A Plastic Planet as "useful for moments, polluting for centuries"), the lack of an alternative for food and drink sachets currently hinders the introduction of a ban.

Inspired by nature, Xampla has developed a next-generation bio-based and biodegradable material produced from plants. By harnessing the natural ability of plant proteins to self-assemble, we have created a new class of materials with remarkable functional properties. These can be used to produce a range of materials with highly controlled properties, including dissolvable films, which can be structured into single-serve sachets. Our sachets are manufactured entirely from edible materials and dissolve rapidly during cooking, without affecting taste, smell, or appearance, providing a zero-waste solution.

With Innovate UK support, we will develop and scale-up the manufacture of bio-based and dissolvable single-serve sachets as a replacement for single-use plastic sachets. We will prove our approach through consumer trials with a UK leading recipe box provider.

The outputs from this project will support the UK's ambition to become a world leader in sustainable packaging, significantly impacting 2025 UK Plastics Pact target 1 and addressing widely known problems related to plastic packaging for consumer products.