Study on the utilization of by-products of wheat milling industry for the development of biodegradable plates

The present study aims at utilizing wheat bran and resultant atta to produce biodegradable-edible plates as an alternative to plastic plates. The edible plates were prepared using different combinations of wheat bran and resultant atta in different ratios viz., WB, 90:10 (WR10); 80:20 (WR20), 70:30 (WR30). Using farinograph, it was observed that the higher the bran higher the water absorption. The doughs from the blends were prepared with water at two different temperatures (100 degrees C and 27 degrees C), sheeted, moulded and baked. Plates produced from WR10, 20, 30 were analysed further and based on break test, leak test and sensory WR30 was chosen as the best. WR 30 was found to leak at 23.01 +/- 0.24 min with hot water and 85.42 +/- 0.11 min with water at room temperature. Moisture, ash, fat, protein, and total dietary fibre content was 4.3 +/- 0.016, 4.90 +/- 0.08, 3.86 +/- 0.075, 16.06 +/- 0.082 and 26.92 +/- 0.166 respectively. Shelf-life predicted for plate was 250-285 days based on MSI studies done.