The way furniture is packed flat to save packaging space and carbon footprint during transport - think for example of how Ikea does this - has inspired a team at Carnegie Mellon University to develop a new type of pasta: Morphing Pasta.
The plastic material used in food packaging is a major contributor to landfills. Finding effective food packaging strategies is crucial to maintaining a sustainable future. For example, they came up with the design concept of deforming food that can be packed flat to reduce packaging space during transport and storage.
Flat paste with grooves
The principle is very simple. At the factory, the paste is not pre-moulded and dried but grooved. The paste remains flat. Once in boiling water, the shape of the paste changes into an attractive edible product.
60% space saving during transport
For 3D-shaped pasta such as macaroni, more than 60% of the packaging space is used to pack air. Making flat-pack pasta, as this "morphing pasta" is officially called, can save much of the packaging space.
Not only that. In Italy, an estimated 0.7% to 1% of total greenhouse gas emissions are due to cooking pasta. These emissions could be reduced by half if the shape and cooking process were optimised. Flat pasta with surface texture has a higher surface-to-volume ratio and can be cooked faster than pasta with an inner cavity, such as macaroni.
Pasta may not look so appealing in the shop anymore, but at least this innovation makes for a surprising meal.
