Slashdot Mirror
Scientists Discover a Way To Get Every Last Drop of Ketchup Out of the Bottle (bbc.com)
Slashdot reader schwit1 quotes a report from BBC: Scientists in Boston have found a way to get every last drop of ketchup out of the bottle. They have developed a coating that makes bottle interiors super slippery. The coating can also be used to make it easier to squeeze out the contents of other containers, such as those holding toothpaste, cosmetics and even glue. The researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) believe that their innovation could dramatically reduce waste. In its manufacture, the container must first be coated on the inside with a rough surface. A very thin layer is then placed over this. And, finally, a liquid is added that fills in any troughs to form a very slippery surface -- like an oily floor. The ketchup hovers on top and just glides out of the bottle. According to Prof Kripa Varanasi, who developed the slippery surface, the technology is completely safe. "The cool thing about it is that because the coating is a composite of solid and liquid, it can be tailored to the product. So for food, we make the coating out of food-based materials and so you can actually eat it."
schwit1 adds: "Pretty slick."
schwit1 adds: "Pretty slick."
It's really nice to see all this Science and Technology used to get a better world! /. article for it!
And a
Sent as ripples into the electromagnetic field. No single photon has been harmed in the process.
I bet it gives you cancer.
This news goes back to at least 2012. See http://www.geek.com/geek-pick/mit-creates-superhydrophobic-coating-for-condiment-bottles-1491587/
I'd pay a little more for a ketchup that slides out that easily, not for the positive environmental
effects or the fact that recycling becomes a lot cleaner, those are bonuses; I'd buy them for the aesthetics alone.
A witty
...from the news from five years ago?
http://www.packagingnews.co.uk/news/nano-coating-ketchup-bottle-23-05-2012
...that will never work. That would cost more to manufacture, and you would sell less bottles as you would squeeze more out of each. I cannot see how the manufacturers would be interested in that.
It has been doing the rounds since at least 2012. It was news back then. It's not news now.
It can be. If the energy added is less than the energy wasted, then it is good, otherwise it is not.
They never tell you the details in the media sources for the masses. Also, there were no references presented in this story to something more definitive. Right out of the bat I was concerned about whether or not this is based on nanotechnology, because we already have super-slick surfaces there. Not sure if I want to eat nanotech.
Rather than working on ways to continue the level of waste we produce, why not make more products refillable? Toothpaste, lotion, ointments, whatever. Instead of putting them in the same old plastic squeeze tubes put them in serine-like tubes than can be opened, cleaned out and refilled. The was a high end toothpaste called Rembrandt that came in an upright bottle that when you push down on it the paste would dispense from the top. The bottle was hard plastic that was made of two parts. It wasn't refillable but it didn't seem like a stretch to make it so. I can see taking the empty container back to the store to be refilled for less then the full price. Reduce and save money.
than the old ones it'd work just fine. A huge part of supermarket sales is perceived value vs actual value. e.g. people paying an extra $0.50 cents for $0.10 cents worth of ketchup but thinking they just got a bargain.
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
Manufacturers make money by selling stuff, repeatedly. The fact that you buy a bottle of ketchup and that you cannot use every last drop of it is your problem, not the manufacturers. In fact, if you could use more of what you bought then you would buy less of it and that means in economic terms that (a) consumer gets more product, (b) manufacturer gets less revenue *and* more costs as they now need to coat the inside of the bottle. It may have its uses, but absolutely not in the FMCG (Faast Moving Consumer Goods) segment
Artificial intelligence is no match for natural stupidity
I first heard about these magic ketchup bottles 5, 6 years ago. Is this really that slow a news day?
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
Is the coating itself safe? We come out with "magic" materials all the time and then predictably find out later on that they have all sorts of horribly toxic side effects. Getting all the ketchup out of the bottle falls pretty low on my list of things I give a shit about.
because throwing a tablespoon of catsup (or ketchup) away in an almost empty bottle is such a crime and a waste
Politics is Treachery, Religion is Brainwashing
"According to Prof Kripa Varanasi, who developed the slippery surface, the technology is completely safe."
Generally we don't/shouldn't rely on the creator's word to vouch for the ultimate safely of products, particularly ingested chemicals...
-Styopa
See this article from July, 2016, about such research at Ohio State University.
Pretty slick.
It's completely stupid because ketchup slides down alright in upside down glass bottles. just give it a day or two
CLI paste? paste.pr0.tips!
Because olive oil is so cheap and does not impart a flavor.
Here, step back from that one tree and see the forest.
The PoC was using ketchup and mayonnaise bottles. The real application is coating the interiors of pipelines and containment vessels, i.e. manufacturing, distribution.
If you're a ketchup manufacturer, and your raw goods are in vessels coated with this, as well as transfer piping, you recoup all of that material loss.
If you're a refinery, your crude just got a lot easier to move.
The consumer-facing application is just a means to differentiate your stupid product from everyone else's. Given the choice between a tube of toothpaste that requires strongman grip strength to fully utilize, or one that practically falls out... well, with the aging world population, this is easy to see as a marketing coup.
--#
Can it be applied to ceramic surfaces?
I don't have a day or two to wait to eat this hot dog!
And tomatoes are 100% bio-degradable.
#DeleteFacebook
I'm looking forward to the /. post announcing the invention of a means to blow-mold an inside surface with a rough texture.
Just make it a habit to store the bottle upside down.
Failing that, use centrifugal force -- just make sure the bottle is closed properly, then grab at the bottom and violently swing around.
CLI paste? paste.pr0.tips!
I just cut the bottle open when it's almost empty and get everything out.
I see no reason for food and/or the personal care industry would want this. It just means their customers would buy their product less frequently. So, the only way this will find its way into use, is if regulators require it. That would require them to be more concerned about their constituents, than the companies. Since when has that happened?
Put the bottle in the fridge upside down, numbnuts
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Some do care. They add a few drops of warm water to the nearly empty bottle, shake well and get a thinner ketchup out into a bowl. They shake/squeeze the next bottle on top of this to "hide" the thinner ketchup, and mix it with a fork from the kids.
Some care even more and they routinely pilfer ketch up packets from every fast food place they enter. They never go through drive through. They go in to get their hands on the goodies. The map pockets on their car door would have paper napkins from these places, their kitchen drawer will be brimming with an assortment of ketchup and sauce packets from Taco Bell and McDonolds.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
Toto has http://www.totousa.com/people-first-innovation/peopleplanetwater/cefiontect that's been an optional upgrade for more than 10 years. Toilets with that really do require less frequent cleaning.
by increasing materials used to prevent that waste.
A better innovation would be a container specifically designed to dispense from the bottom. I make a point of buying viscous products in flat-topped containers, but standing the bottle upside down is a poor alternative even for those wide-topped ketchup bottles that are designed to be stored that way. What I have in mind is a pump bottle that substitutes gravity feed for the pumping action and which totally isolates the product from the environment when the bottle is standing on the shelf. No more ketchupy fingers or sticky spot on the refrigerator shelf.
And most importantly, no more precariously balanced shampoo bottles that fall on my foot in the shower, ever.
priorities.
This "coating" is already outdated, since bottle companies are working on plastics that basically do this without any additional coatings.
And they're already partly there: if you look at ketchup bottles in (US) stores you can see that the ketchup does all slide to the bottom now.
The sliding doesn't happen real fast but it works. And nobody wants the whole bottle to come gushing out at once anyway.
There are scientists for ketchup??
WARNING: Smartphones have side effects--most of them undocumented.
What's this yellow stain on your lab gown?
Are you leaving us for the competition?
WARNING: Smartphones have side effects--most of them undocumented.
... not for the positive environmental effects or the fact that recycling becomes a lot cleaner, those are bonuses ...
Given that recycling wasn't mentioned - at all - in the article, it's a safe bet that this technology renders the container non-recyclable.
#DeleteChrome
Clear your "Safety Circle" first, so you don't give friends/family concussions. Oh, and hold tight!
Ketchup becomes thinner when you hit the bottom bottle with the bottom of your hand. Some shampoos and detergents does this too.
https://www.youtube.com/c/BrendaEM
I remember reading this *exact* story here on /.about five years ago.
See also this slashdot article from 2015 about the exact same technology:
https://science.slashdot.org/s...
Apparently the reason it's in the news is that LiquiGlide (a company Prof. Varanasi co-founded, though it's not mentioned in the newer article) just went through (or is in the middle of?) a new round of venture funding.
So they had working technology for sale two years ago but now they want it to be news again, because marketing.
This Space Intentionally Left Blank
Yeah, so we add this stuff, and that means you won't waste this other stuff.
a) I trust the new stuff is cheaper than the ketchup itself -- and by cheaper, I mean cradle-to-grave with the machine, the material, the shipping of the material, and the invention efforts too.
b) I really don't care about the last half-penny of ketchup in the three-dollar bottle.
c) water works when cooking with ketchup
d) time works, and looks cool
e) this was never anyone's problem!
And this is exactly the point.
Where's the incentive to the manufacturer?
- Adds cost to the manufacturing process
- Decreases sales (due to less waste)
So why would any manufacturer actually use this product?
And don't say that people will pay more for it, they won't. Especially not by enough to compensate for the decreased waste and increased cost.
It would take an absolute marketing genius to find a way to get customers to pay enough extra for this to make it worth it. I just don't see it ever making it to market in pre-packaged products.
If they are designed to be stored that way, then they aren't being stored upside down in the first place, are they? If the writing on the bottle appears right-side up, but the opening for dispensing is on the bottom, how can you say that it is being stored upside down?
You may, however, have to manipulate the bottle to be upside down briefly while you are opening and closing it in order to have some control over exactly how much of the contents you dispense.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
Heinz also has squeeze bottles that are designed to stand with the lid down. The problem is already solved, it's just not widely distributed.
I don't know about plastic containers, toothpastes tubes but this seems to be demonstrated on a glass bottle, so it seems to be a no brainer.
Tiny coating made of food-grade stuff, versus leftover food in the bottle. I believe the recycling consists of melting the glass shards / broken bottles / bottles in a oven?, so it'd be incinerated and the glass waste is full of beer labels, drops of wine and sticky stuff etc. anyway.
If so I think the main benefit is people will throw the glass with other discarded glass rather than throw in in the trash due to food sticking to it.
But, I wonder if that works with mayonnaise. In my country ketchup comes in plastic and mayonnaise, mustard in glass. Rinsing mayonnaise just creates a silly mess as it's mostly made of pure fat.
I'm glad we can talk of such important and urgent matters LOL.
The upside-down bottle is still apt to drip extra product when dispensing condiments. Though this would not be a problem with shampoo, I have curiously not seen a single example of a shampoo bottle which is upside down by design. In fact, most shampoo seems to be specifically designed to fall over if propped in the inverted position. I suspect this is a conspiracy by Big Foot, the podiatry lobby.
I just mix some vinegar in near the end to loosen it up.
According to Prof Kripa Varanasi, who developed the slippery surface, the technology is completely safe.
Like margarine or pet plastics were perfectly safe in the sixties safe?
Ketchup that slides right out of the bottle, to the last drop?
Shut down the Patent Office. There is now nothing worthwhile left to invent.
Last time I read about this it was because Heinz sponsored a competition to design a bottle that pours better. Some smartass MIT undergrads played around in the materials sciences lab and designed a bottle that was extremely hydrophobic such that the ketchup literally all just slid out, constrained only by the mouth of the container.
As for the reason, it was clever marketing that gave them the possibility of seeing a new product (none were adopted) while being widely picked up by the press and getting a fair amount of exposure to the general public. Not since Garrison Keillor had the virtues of ketchup been so widely sang.
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
The incremental cost is probably minimal, especially compared to the cost of existing bottle redesigns, as are the potential lost sales. I've seen various attempts to market bottles in forms that are supposed to get more of the product out (only the 409 bottles that feed from the bottom via a molded tube seem to fully work), and that can absolutely be a sales pitch. I hate trying to get the last of the mayo out of the jar because I end up having to dirty a spatula to get at the remnants. I'd happily get something that would allow me to pour out the last bits instead, and I suspect many others will, too.
You can never go home again... but I guess you can shop there.
You've identified the target market for my ketchup centrifuge.
Contribute to civilization: ari.aynrand.org/donate
This is so pointless. I just use my tongue to scoop up the last drops of delicious ketchup from the bottom of the bottle. Yes, women love me.
We can't cure cancer, but we can get that last glob of ketchup out of a bottle!
Have you ever fallen asleep at the keybhanusdiog?
Head and Shoulders makes shampoo bottles that dispense from the bottom. There may be others, but I have definitely seen that one.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
If the lost sales are minimal, then you already don't have much left, so there's no point in doing this.
If there's an actual percentage left when you're done, then you are buying more bottles to get the same amount of product.
You can't really have it both ways. Either this is a real problem to be solved, in which case it will cut sales if it's solved. Or it's not a real problem, in which case there's no point spending the money on it. Either way the manufacturer has no incentive to implement it.
... or a container that's shaped in a way that lets one use a utensil to scrape it clean. Narrow-neck salad dressing bottles are horrid this way as well.
Ketchup and toothpaste prices double after new coating used in containers. Manufacturer's claim an increase in "value" due to the customer getting more mileage from a bottle or tube. Sizes remain the same.