A, let's say, peculiar flavor: discover vanilla ice cream made from PLASTIC

Italian designer Eleonora Ortolani innovated by creating a way of produce vanilla ice cream from plastic.

Her project, titled Guilty Flavors, was presented as her final work at Central Saint Martins, at the University of the Arts in London.

The aim of the project is to use the human digestive process as a way to permanently eliminate plastic.

Ortolani collaborated with biotechnologist Dr. Joanna Sadler, from the University of Edinburgh, to develop new biochemical processes capable of making the plastic material consumable.

As a result, they produced a form of synthetic vanilla extract from waste PET plastic, the same material used in drinking bottles. refrigerator.

Eleonora Ortolani explained that the inspiration for Guilty Flavors came from her dissatisfaction with the traditional recycling system, despite it being a seemingly strange method.

She highlighted that there is currently a limit to the transformation of waste into new products, which ultimately results in the generation of additional waste.

How did plastic become food?

Vanilla extract, like many types of plastic, is traditionally derived from crude oil. The designer's objective with the project is to find a way to break the bonds of the plastic polymer molecules and convert them into vanillin.

To achieve this, the team made modifications to the bacteria Escherichia coli, making it capable of carrying out this molecular breakdown.

The product resulting from the experiment has a molecular structure identical to synthetic vanillin and emits a vanilla aroma, as indicated by Ortolani.

(Image: Eleonora Ortolani/Tom Mannion/University of the Arts London/Reproduction)

Despite the great news, as this process is recent, there are restrictions imposed by food safety bodies that need to be strictly followed.

This implies that, until sufficient studies are conducted to determine the potential effects on the body, no one is allowed to consume ice cream produced using this method.

Therefore, the product remains on display in a refrigerator at Central Saint Martins. Concerns about food safety and the need to ensure that ice cream is completely safe to eat are priorities before its eventual availability to the public.

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