[Creative Cultivation Program] Can edible straws be eaten as pasta?

Author: Nong Xiaoyi

Reviewer: Han Hongwei

Walking on the road, we can see slogans everywhere, such as "Green water and green mountains are gold and silver mountains", which makes us more clear about the country's strong support for environmental protection actions. With the improvement of people's living standards, environmental awareness is also gradually increasing, because everyone knows that this is related to people's happiness. We must unswervingly strengthen ecological environmental protection and make every effort to promote the improvement of environmental quality. We must remember to correctly handle the relationship between ecological environmental protection and economic development. This is the inherent requirement for achieving sustainable development and the basic principle for promoting modernization.

In the past, environmental problems were more prominent, and the amount of industrial solid waste was relatively large. In the past few years, the use of plastic packaging has increased rapidly, and garbage can be seen everywhere on the streets, especially plastic bags and straws for various beverages, which has led to serious "white pollution". In recent years, we have begun to realize the importance of environmental protection. In order to protect the construction of ecological civilization, the country has made a lot of efforts, such as the popularization of green environmentally friendly shopping bags in supermarkets and the classification of garbage. We are even developing many environmentally friendly products, such as environmentally friendly agents, high-performance environmentally friendly anti-seepage materials, solid waste treatment curing agents and stabilizers, etc. In the energy-saving industry, we are developing high-efficiency energy-saving technologies and equipment. These are all efforts made to protect the ecological environment, but they are still not enough and need to be strengthened.

1-Developing green and environmentally friendly products is an important means to protect the ecological environment

A long time ago, I saw a news report that researchers found a sea turtle on the coast of Costa Rica. They saw that its nose seemed to be blocked by something and it looked very painful. Later, after surgery, people removed a 12-centimeter-long plastic straw from its nose. When I saw this news, I felt sorry for the sea turtle and worried about our marine environment. According to statistics from the my country Plastics Association, my country uses about 3 billion plastic bags every day, and the annual use of plastic bags exceeds 4 million tons. Takeout and express delivery are exacerbating this problem. The country has also issued a "plastic restriction order". By the end of 2020, shopping malls, supermarkets, pharmacies, bookstores and other sales outlets (including delivery services) are prohibited from using non-degradable plastic bags. These are the efforts made by the country to protect the ecological environment and are an important way to protect the environment.

After seeing the news about the turtle being injured by the straw, I believe that there must be many small animals that are accidentally injured by our careless actions. Therefore, developing green and environmentally friendly products to protect the ecological environment is a very important means. For example, edible straws, the existence value of these products is greater than their use value.

2-Development of edible straws

At present, there are plastic straws, paper straws and degradable polylactic acid straws on the market. In milk tea shops, plastic straws are still the majority, but some milk tea shops are gradually using paper straws instead of plastic straws, which are easier to degrade. But in any case, these straws have their own shortcomings and deficiencies. For example, plastic straws may take hundreds of years to completely degrade, which can easily cause white pollution and easily stab small animals. Paper straws are easy to soften in water and should not be left for too long. It is currently found that during use, they have been strongly "complained" by many netizens: when drinking, paper straws are too soft to poke in at all; some netizens say that using paper straws always feels like the taste of paper in the mouth, which covers up the taste of milk tea; degradable polylactic acid straws are not heat-resistant enough and are easy to soften when exposed to heat. Therefore, developing a straw that is easy to degrade and has good heat resistance can not only be well utilized, but also protect the ecological environment, which will become a future development trend.

Since the above three types of straws have so many shortcomings, can we make other straw substitutes?

Therefore, edible straws were developed. They were first discovered by Guan Qingfang, a special associate researcher in the team of Yu Shuhong, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and professor of the University of Science and Technology of China. The research team mainly used the strategy of biosynthesizing bacterial cellulose and compounding it with seaweed extract sodium alginate to develop "edible" bacterial cellulose-based straws with excellent performance. This major discovery provides a favorable direction for the use of the straw industry.

The production of edible straws is actually very simple. By consulting relevant literature, the production steps are briefly summarized. The first step is to press the bacterial cellulose into a film, introduce a thin layer of sodium alginate on the surface of the film, and then roll the film coated with sodium alginate into a tube and immerse it in a calcium lactate solution for cross-linking. In the last step, after washing and drying, edible and biodegradable bacterial cellulose-based straws are produced. This new type of straw can be quickly degraded, is very friendly to the environment, will not have a negative impact on the environment, and will not have much impact on the taste of milk tea.

Some people may wonder whether the edible straws made by such technical means are difficult to digest after consumption? The answer is no. A large number of studies have shown that they are very easy to digest. Not only are they easy to digest, but their ingredients also have many benefits to the human body. The material used to make edible straws is mainly compressed bacterial cellulose. If eaten as food, they have many benefits to the body. The following benefits can be summarized:

After consumption, the cellulose can increase bowel movements and reduce constipation; cellulose can absorb a large amount of water, promote gastrointestinal motility, accelerate excretion, and reduce adverse stimulation to the intestines.

2. Control weight. Dietary fiber can produce a feeling of fullness, thereby reducing food intake and effectively controlling weight. Resistant starch can also resist enzyme decomposition, slowly release glucose in the body, have a lower insulin response, control blood sugar balance, and reduce the concentration of glucose in the digestive tract. It is especially suitable for diabetic patients.

3. Resistant starch can effectively serve as a nutrient source for colon flora, promote human intestinal health, and effectively prevent and treat colon cancer.

4. Lower cholesterol. Cellulose can inhibit the absorption of cholesterol, triglycerides, and low-density lipoprotein, thereby lowering blood lipid levels.

3- Edible straws can be selected in color and flavor

During the development process, edible straws can be made not only in a single color, but also in many colors. These colors are all edible and you can choose the color according to your own preferences. The production process is mainly through loading edible pigments or natural plant extracts in the three-dimensional nanofiber network of bacterial cellulose, so that various colors and flavors can be integrated into the straws, so the color and flavor are not single.

Edible straws are now being mass-produced and can be purchased online on Taobao and other platforms. You can choose the flavor and color. For example, edible rice-flavored straws can be cooked after use. The cooked straws taste like pasta, and you can also add some seasonings according to your taste. Do you want to try it?

4- Let’s take action to store “green capital”

The emergence of edible straws is not just for the sake of deliciousness, but more for the sake of ecological protection and the protection of our beautiful planet. We store food and money for life; small animals also store food for survival; and entrepreneurs store money for success; as a member of the beautiful planet, we must consciously maintain ecological stability, take positive actions to store green capital, store beauty and happiness, maintain a harmonious home of green waters and green mountains, make our planet more and more beautiful, and prevent the small animals living on the earth from being harmed by us.

References

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More environmentally friendly, the straw you use to drink milk tea has changed again [N]. Zhang Zheng. China Women's News. 2022-04-08 (008)

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This article is produced by the Science Popularization China-Creation Cultivation Program. Please indicate the source when reprinting