The abstract of a June 9, 2022, Microbial Genomics article https://www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/journal/mgen/10.1099/mgen.0.000842 by researchers with Australia The University of Queensland reports that “… we assessed changes in the gut microbiome of superworms (Zophobas morio) reared on bran, polystyrene or under starvation conditions over a 3 weeks period. Superworms on all diets were able to complete their life cycle to pupae and imago, although superworms reared on polystyrene had minimal weight gains, resulting in lower pupation rates compared to bran reared worms … We detected several encoded enzymes with reported polystyrene and styrene degradation abilities … our results provide the first metagenomic insights into the metabolic pathways used by the gut microbiome of superworms to degrade polystyrene. Our results also confirm that superworms can survive on polystyrene feed, but this diet has considerable negative impacts on host gut microbiome diversity and health …” #PlasticWaste #SingleUsePlastic #Polystyrene @UQ_News @MicrobioSoc
Animal Digestible Food Packaging Initiative
Our reason-for-being/goal/purpose/objective/intent is to convince/inspire/persuade/encourage the food processing industry to establish and fund a public private partnership for the discovery of new food packaging materials that would be digestible by animals (farm animals as well as ubiquitous microbes).
