Vol. 12, Issue 5 (2023)

Author(s):
K Sindhu, R Swamy and M Prashanthi

Abstract:
Plastics are a mixture of organic polymers that play a major role in environmental pollution around the world. One way to reduce the waste caused by using plastic, especially single-use plastic, could be to produce eco-friendly cutlery. In this study, the control sample was made from a combination of sorghum, wheat and rice flour, guar gum in different proportions, the control sample with (40:40:20) proportion of sorghum, wheat and rice flour was standardized and the spoons were made in three different colours using extracts of beetroot, spinach and jamun instead of water, not only to give colour but also to add nutritional value to the spoon. The edible spoons were analysed for nutritional parameters such as moisture, ash, fat and protein content using standard methods. The textural properties of the edible spoons were studied using CT3 Texture analyser by determining their hardness, and the spoons made with spinach extract exhibited more resistance to compression with hardness of 4.76N compared to the other spoons. The colour properties were studied using Hunter lab colorimeter. Among all the samples the chroma is higher for control sample-2 (26.58) and the lowest chroma value was observed for edible spoons of beetroot extract (17.29). The highest hue angle was recorded for spinach spoons (84.08) and the lowest hue for beetroot spoons (50.75). As the main aim of the study is to develop the bio-degradable spoons with natural colours, the biodegradability properties were studied using soil burial test where complete decay was observed in 5 to 7 days, thus the single use plastic can be replaced by the edible spoons contributing to the reduce in usage of plastic spoons.