Researchers at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) Singapore have developed an environmentally friendly and inexpensive technique for creating chitin by combining crustacean and fruit waste.

The new process for producing chitin, which is typically used as a food thickener and stabilizer and antimicrobial food packaging film, combines crustacean waste with fruit waste — including white and red grape pomace, pineapple cores, and mango and apple peels.

The mixture undergoes a natural fermentation process wherein the fruit contains enough sugar to break down the crustacean waste and extract chitin, according to researchers.

Following the application of an X-ray diffraction technique, researchers discovered that the natural fermentation process using fruit waste yielded higher quality chitin with a crystallinity index — which is a measure of chitin purity — of 98.16%. This is a reported improvement over previous commercial chitin production processes that yielded an 87.56% crystallinity index.

Previous methods for producing chitin included marine waste and an expensive chemical extraction process that consumed significant amounts of energy and produced chemical byproducts.

The team will continue to work on the process to further develop chitin for food packaging and drug delivery applications.

The research appears in the journal AMB Express.

For more on the research, watch the accompanying video that appears courtesy of Nanyang Technological University Singapore.