Students make use of discarded peel to increase shelf life of fruits, veggies

Gurvinder Singh

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, January 1

To reduce pollution and utilise the peels of fruits and vegetables, which just pile up as garbage dumps, students of Class X of BCM Arya Model School, Shastri Nagar, have turned the peels in a useful substance called pectin.

More so, students along with their teacher have developed a biodegradable coating which can increase the shelf life of fruits, vegetables and other eatables multifold.

Though the main use of pectin is as a gelling agent, thickening agent, stabiliser in food, in addition to being used for providing jelly-like consistency to jams, etc., the team has gone a step further in developing the coating.

Considering the importance of the project and its utility, the project has been considered among the best 15 projects at the national-level during National Children’s Science Congress, which concluded in Gujarat yesterday.

Amarpreet Kaur, biotechnology teacher who is guiding the project, said millions get spent on procuring pectin, which is used in several substances. All that money can be saved by developing pectin from the waste generated from fruit peels.

“We have things in plenty, but these are not being utilised properly. So, we decided to turn the waste fruit peels into pectin,” she said. The team sought help of PAU scientists in this process. They collected discarded fruit peels, especially those of citrus fruits, and through a biochemical process, recovered pectin in the powdered form. “We developed a coating for the surface of fruits and vegetables to increase their shelf life. Being biodegradable, it is also harmless for the environment, but without affecting the fruits and vegetables prevents these from getting spoilt,” she said.

“In fact, just dipping fruits and vegetables in pectin solution will give a coating to fruits and vegetables, which increases their shelf life, which is a safe alternative to wax, which is used for polishing fruits like apples.

This project needs to be adopted at a mass level to prevent the wastage of peels of fruits and vegetables, which when simply disposed of only add to garbage and further to green house gases when these degenerate,” she says.

“The selection of the project among top-15 at the national-level from around 650 entries speaks volumes about the importance of the project as well as the hard work of the team,” said Dr Paramjit Kaur, Principal, BCM Arya Model School, Shastri Nagar.