Delica foods Co., a major Japanese food processor, has succeeded in using papermaking technology to produce paper-like sheets made of vegetable residue, dubbed "Nappers." The company made the announcement on its website on March 15, 2007.
The product can be used as paper when wood pulp is added to vegetable residues. Paper-like sheets made exclusively of vegetable residues can be used as food wrappers similar to nori seaweed sheets used to wrap sushi. In the process of making edible sheets, water content decreases from more than 90 percent in vegetable residue to less than 10 percent in the end-product sheet. This concentrates the vegetables' nutrients and fiber in the sheet, giving it high nutritional value.
The company plans to improve the texture and flexibility of the sheet in order to commercialize it as a tasty and easy-to-eat product full of vegetable nutrients, while helping to reduce vegetable residue wastes and contributing to a better global environment.
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