MIT’s Freaky Non-Stick Coating Keeps Ketchup Flowing

[Skinner]

When it comes to those last globs of ketchup inevitably stuck to every bottle of Heinz, most people either violently shake the container in hopes of eking out another drop or two, or perform the "secret" trick: smacking the "57" logo on the bottle’s neck. But not MIT PhD candidate Dave Smith. He and a team of mechanical engineers and nano-technologists at the Varanasi Research Group have been held up in an MIT lab for the last two months addressing this common dining problem.

The result? LiquiGlide, a "super slippery" coating made up of nontoxic materials that can be applied to all sorts of food packaging--though ketchup and mayonnaise bottles might just be the substance’s first targets. Condiments may sound like a narrow focus for a group of MIT engineers, but not when you consider the impact it could have on food waste and the packaging industry. "It’s funny: Everyone is always like, 'Why bottles? What’s the big deal?' But then you tell them the market for bottles--just the sauces alone is a $17 billion market," Smith says. "And if all those bottles had our coating, we estimate that we could save about one million tons of food from being thrown out every year."

http://www.fastcoexist.com/1679878/mits-freaky-non-stick-coating-keeps-ketchup-flowing

[CurtEastPoint]

1. When I saw MIT, I couldn't help but think of you know who... Freaky Mittens.

[freshwest]

2. I feel dumb. My solution to sticky ketchup was to add water to the bottle and shake it.

It has always worked until the bottle is finished, which at my house takes a few years, maybe!

With mayo I used a silicone spatula to get it all out but now I don't use mayo anymore. I'm so of touch with new things.

Now, what I'd like to see is a way to get those stickers off!

I bought stuff to get them off, but they're just lighter fluid. Sigh.

[PADemD]

15. Sticky ketchup water solution

If you add some mustard, brown sugar, and worstershire sauce to that mix, you'll have a great home-made BBQ sauce.

[freshwest]

16. I did when I was a kid, but not in the ketchup bottle. Mixed them in the pan with beans.

Don't cook like that anymore.

[drm604]

3. Held up?

He and a team of mechanical engineers and nano-technologists at the Varanasi Research Group have been held up in an MIT lab for the last two months

It sounds like they were robbed at gunpoint or propped against a wall. Don't they have editors? It's "holed up" not "held up".

Ignoring that: When you think about the food that could be saved, this could be great. But I wonder if Heinz et al will want to use it. They have no financial incentive for you to be able to completely empty the bottle. That million tons of food that would be saved is a million tons less that they'll sell.

[obxhead]

7. I thought the same thing

about the incentive to add this to bottles.

However, all it will take is one company adopting the idea and marketing it. They'll probably charge extra, more than the coating costs and market themselves as saving you money.

Someone will use it. Years ago mayo only came in a regular jar. Now every brand sells it in a squeeze bottle.

[awoke_in_2003]

10. Speaking of thing you would think...

companies would extra for, I priced Reynolds Wrap Aluminum foil made out of recycled aluminum. You would think they would jump on the green bandwagon (and charge more), but it was actually cheaper than the regular. Even though, from a manufacturing point of view, it should be cheaper, it was hard, from the marketing point of view, to believe that it actually was.

[Odin2005]

4. Why not use squeezable plastic bottles?

[drm604]

5. Plastic squeeze bottles can't achieve what this would achieve,

unless you coat them with this stuff.

[laconicsax]

9. It's a global conspiracy.

Monsanto, WHO, Dept. of Agriculture, PHARMA, morgellons, Area 51.

You know how it works...

[outofstep]

6. Flow control

Squeeze bottles work just fine.

You dont want a wide mouthed bottle that offers very little flow control for something like ketchup. Closest analog would be a cement truck that just blasts all it's cement out in 5 seconds.

This illustrates the disconnect between lab and real life use.

[KoKo]

8. I dunno about this Skinner....

Would you feed this to your two "little ones."

I was just at my dentist yesterday...and he's around your age...and his two little ones (5 and 7 years old) were at their OWN dentist with Cavities in Baby Teeth.. Apparently they were giving their little ones Juice Boxes and their own dentist flagged that as why the kids were getting cavities.

So if our own dentists are having problems with thinking they are givin their kids something better than Coke and Pepsi with juice boxes are now finding their own kids are getting cavities...we gotta wonder about what adding some OTHER THING to our Ketchup/Mayonnaise and other products are going to do.

With juice boxes it's the sugar that's the problem...(not better than Coke/Pepsi) or take your chances with the Artificial Sweetners.

In the article you link it's putting chemicals in bottles that make things "flow better?" Just put some water in and swirl it around and you don't need any chemicals in that plastic container. Better yet...buy your stuff in GLASS JARS and scoop it out!

What is it that Convenience needs to Triumph over HEALTH?

Anyway...best to you with your little ones. Being a Parent today is a chore that is much more fraught with difficulties than in my era. And...WE THOUGHT we had it hard!

[awoke_in_2003]

11. kids are getting less fluoride, too...

thanks to bottled water.

on edit: wait a minute, fluoride is an international communist conspiracy. Have you ever seen a Russian drink water?

[laconicsax]

12. Your dentist sounds like a moron.

The American Academy of Pediatrics and American Academy of Pedodontics recommend against giving children their own juice boxes because of the risk of cavities that the high levels of sugar carry and because of the digestive and metabolic drinking that much sugar can cause. This isn't some new recommendation--it's been around since loads of studies showing the health problems associated with fruit juice started coming out in 90s.

You might want to look for another dentist if the one you're seeing is that badly informed.

[KoKo]

13. No...my dentist is definitely not a Moron. Both he and his wife work hard...they are young

and they are savvy enough to know that Coke and Pepsi would rot their kids teeth but, they are also too young to know that the Juice Boxes (the healthy alternative) were going to do bad stuff to their kids. The Media is important today. And two parents working off school loans doing the best they can ...did what they did because they thought they were doing better than the parents who put Coke/Pepsi in their baby's bottles for a "TREAT!" (yes, there are parents who do this because they grew up with it, themselves).

He is a Prosthodontist graduated from UNC Dental School and University of Toronto, Canada for his basic Dental Degree and his own father is a Prosthodontist in Canada who has won awards for leading articles (peer reviewed) in international Dental Magazines and Web Sites. His whole family are Dentists. But, he's a REAL PARENT living in Today's Time...when both parents work and "Juice Boxes" were supposed to be healthy.

He is NOT a MORON..

On Edit: You may be wondering why he wasn't reading warnings. I didn't ask him if he'd bought the "Juice Boxes" at Whole Foods and so he and his wife thought they were "fructose free" or Natural. As we know...not all Organics are what they seem to be....and there's "peer pressure" for these young folks in that their Kids want what all the Other Kids are drinking.

You might be opposed to that idea...but, it's the way most young parents have to live today...when they both work...and try to hold it together.

[laconicsax]

14. Apparently they're not savvy enough to keep up with decades-old research and recommendations.

Really. I'm not a doctor or work in the medical establishment but even I know that fruit juice is absolutely loaded with sugar and that it's bad for kids.

Natural or organic fruit juice isn't going to have any less fructose or other sugar because the sugars are naturally occurring. 100% pure organic fruit juice can easily have the same amount or more sugar per serving than a can of Coke or Pepsi.

On edit: Did they not brush their kids' teeth either?

[KoKo]

17. Whatever...who wants more chemical "junk" just to make the "flow" easier!

Lubricating the Condom...wilth more delicious stuff?

[Occulus]

18. "too young to know that the Juice Boxes (the healthy alternative) were going to do bad stuff"

No, they're just idiots.

[KoKo]

19. It's an "age thing" ...though. Those who grew up with products marketed as good alternatives

to Sugar Sweets like Coke and Pepsi...and whatever..were told "Juice Boxes" were Natural Good stuff for their kids.

This was the alternative to the Bottled Soft Drinks...and they thought it was a "good thing."

If you are or were a parent looking for good stuff for your kids to drink (as opposed to the Soft Drink Parents (filling kids wit Pepsi/Coke or the "off brand equivalents) you would feel you were doing a good thing for your kids for "healthy juice" as opposed to Chemical Concoctions."

They thought they were doing the good thing for their kids...and their kids got the same cavities that the Coke/Pepsi kids got.

That's the point. My dentist was upset about this ..(what dentist would want to admit this...but, he's a good guy and was horrified by what his own kids were going through.)

I'll give my Dentist an A*** for relating this to his patient...(that he knew was an Organic/Naturalist Advocate)...rather than him NOT ENGAGING IN DIALOG.

Whatever....he cut them off the juice boxes ...but the kids went into revolt over it because they would be shamed by friends.

Anyone who has been a parent...knows that that's about. FAMILY WAR! But, you gotta do what you gotta do. ...and Dentists are not pure..any more than the rest of us are when we have to deal with our families and REAL LIFE situations.

Just saying. I'm glad the guy was honest and talked about this family problem with his kids to a patient that he knew would engage in dialog. We need more of these professionals who will talk about what they are seeing in their own lives...rather than authoritarians who TELL US ALL what to do and don't SHARE their OWN life experience.

[laconicsax]

20. Here's the thing.

Juice boxes have been known to not be a "healthy alternative" to anything since the 90s. You've said your dentist is intelligent and savvy, but apparently not intelligent and savvy to:

1) Be familiar with decades-old unanimous recommendations concerning the the dangers of fruit juice for children.
2) Read the nutrition facts on the packaging and notice the huge amount of sugar.
3) Make the connection that extremely sugary drinks may contribute to cavities
4) Make sure that his kids are practicing good dental hygiene.

Sorry, KoKo. Unless there's a HUGE part of this story you're leaving out (and I mean absolutely massive), your dentist is almost certainly a moron.

[KoKo]

21. Obviously you are a FOODIE PURIST Person....who want's to tell everyone what YOU KNOW and

not take into consideration the lives people live these days.

That my dentist wasn't into constant contact with food websites and into reading reams of info ...when he and his wife thought the Juice Boxes were a proper alternative to giving their kids nutritious drinks as opposed to Coke/Pepsi is a negative in your opinion.

YET...you never once say that you are a Parent or Grandparent who has had to deal with Family along with YOUR career and how YOU personally dealt with your own kids and their food choices that didn't go along with your own (seemingly purist and authoritarian views) and how YOU, PERSONALLY dealt with the situation.

Until I hear from you about Your Family experience and how your kids dealt with being denied what their friends were doing and how you coped with it...I will go with my trying to explain what families deal with today. Even the highly educated families who might be trying to do the best but, thought they were doing the correct nutritional thing with their kids...but, weren't alerted that "Apple Juice" comes from China and that "High Fructose" is in Most of our Products.

I find your arguments never answer what I say ...but, that you want to say my Dentist is a Moron and that I probably am too.

It's not a discussion with you but you pushing some kind of "BUT WE ALL KNEW" kind of crap onto the thread.

Just saying.... You really don't want to engage but to tell parents how stupid they are.

[laconicsax]

22. LOL! What on earth is a "FOODIE PURIST person?

How fucking difficult is it to turn the juice box around and look at the number next to "sugar" and read the ingredients? It's easy enough for young children to do, and I know that though experience.

Educating yourself about whether sugar promotes cavities takes less effort than finding out which Congressional district you live in and isn't something a dentist should be confused about. Seriously, if you have a dentist that was surprised by the revelation that super-sugary drinks can cause cavities, you should ask to see their credentials.

You're seriously defending a dentist, who was apparently unaware of the connection between sugar and cavities, as being intelligent and savvy? I'm going to suggest that you don't have a good understanding of what either of those words mean.

I do admit, I'm quite willing to say that a dentist who apparently was neither aware of the link between sugar and cavities nor took the time to teach their children proper dental hygiene is a moron and may not be a properly credentialed or certified medical professional.

[KoKo]

23. Do you have children, Grandchildren...have you ever been a parent?

Again....I ask the question.


What's your experience in raising kids?

[laconicsax]

24. So you're going to ignore everything I said and try to change the subject?

Classic.

I'm not inclined to share details of my life with anonymous strangers on the Internet. Not only is it none of your business, it's irrelevant to the issues I've raised. If you'd like to address those issues, please do so. To review:

-Fruit juice has just as much sugar (most of it fructose) as soft drinks, if not more.
-Fruit juice has been shown to lead to higher incidence of cavities, diabetes, metabolic, digestive, and other health problems in children consistently for almost 20 years now.
-Both the American Academy of Pediatricians and American Academy of Pedondists have been advising against giving any more than a small amount of fruit juice to children for nearly fifteen years.
-Food and beverage packaging includes both an ingredient list and breakdown of specific types of nutrients (including sugars).
-High sugar intake has been positively linked to cavity formation.
-Good dental hygiene works wonders to prevent cavities.
-Your dentist was either apparently unaware of all of this or intentionally disregarded it only to be surprised by his kids getting cavities.

If you prefer to dodge these issues to keep insisting that your dentist is fantastic and "savvy" and that I must not know what it's like to raise kids, that's your right, but please keep in mind that it only shows the intellectual poverty of your position.

[Occulus]

25. So, they also don't know how to tell their kids "no"

and MEAN it.

Glad you cleared that up!

[struggle4progress]

26. MIT's Freaky Non-Stick Coating Keeps Ketchup Flowing