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posted by janrinok on Saturday July 04 2015, @05:21AM   Printer-friendly
from the slip-slidin'-away-pt2 dept.

Orkla Group has become the first food company to announce a deal with LiquiGlide Inc., which offers a non-stick coating for the inside of bottles and other food packaging:

Mayonnaise that does not get stuck in its container is being developed by a Norwegian company. Orkla is the first food manufacturer to announce a deal with US company Liquiglide to use its non-stick coating in product packaging. [...] Liquiglide says its coating is "completely harmless" and meets safety standards because it "can be made entirely from food".

The company was founded in 2012 to sell licences for a non-stick technology developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. A customised version of the coating is created for each product, resulting in a "permanently wet" surface inside containers that helps the product slip out. It told the BBC it was working with 30 companies, including some of the biggest consumer brands in the US.
Orkla's food division generated more than 3bn krone (£246m) of sales in its last quarter. The company said it was still deciding exactly how it would use the technology in its products.

While reducing wasted product may benefit consumers, Liquiglide suggests it could also encourage shoppers to buy more frequently. The company states on its website: "Liquiglide makes dispensing product so easy that consumers actually tend to use it faster... it pushes consumers to an earlier repurchase point."

From a 2012 article:

The site claims the spray will work on glass, plastic, metal and ceramic surfaces and with any condiment — there's also a similar video showing LiquiGlide's use with mayonnaise. The LiquiGlide site says easy pours will not only prevent wasted quantities, but could also eliminate 25,000 tons of petroleum-based plastics by allowing the use of smaller caps.

While he wouldn't reveal its contents, [Massachusetts Institute of Technology PhD candidate Dave] Smith told Fast Company magazine that LiquiGlide has other potential uses, such as preventing clogs in oil and gas lines. "We've patented the hell out of it," he said.


Original Submission

Related Stories

New "Omniphobic" Coating Created by University of Michigan Researcher 22 comments

A University of Michigan researcher has created a coating that could be used to repel water, oil, and other substances:

In an advance that could grime-proof phone screens, countertops, camera lenses and countless other everyday items, a materials science researcher at the University of Michigan has demonstrated a smooth, durable, clear coating that swiftly sheds water, oils, alcohols and, yes, peanut butter.

Called "omniphobic" in materials science parlance, the new coating repels just about every known liquid. It's the latest in a series of breakthrough coatings from the lab of Anish Tuteja, U-M associate professor of materials science and engineering. The team's earlier efforts produced durable coatings that repelled ice and water, and a more fragile omniphobic coating. The new omniphobic coating is the first that's durable and clear. Easily applied to virtually any surface, it's detailed in a paper published in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces.

Tuteja envisions the new coating as a way to prevent surfaces from getting grimy, both in home and industry. It could work on computer displays, tables, floors and walls, for example.

[...] Ultimately, the team discovered that a mix of fluorinated polyurethane and a specialized fluid-repellent molecule called F-POSS would do the job. Their recipe forms a mixture that can be sprayed, brushed, dipped or spin-coated onto a wide variety of surfaces, where it binds tightly. While the surface can be scratched by a sharp object, it's durable in everyday use. And its extremely precise level of phase separation makes it optically clear.

Just what I needed for my keyboard, VR headset, countertop, toilet bowl, 1 gallon mayonnaise jar, t-shirts, patio deck, sailing ship, the inside of all of my body's cells, and synthetic killer bacteria.

Smooth, All-Solid, Low-Hysteresis, Omniphobic Surfaces with Enhanced Mechanical Durability (DOI: 10.1021/acsami.8b00521) (DX)

Related: Nissan Testing 'Super-Hydrophobic' and 'Oleophobic' Paint
LiquiGlide Slippery Coating Coming Inside Norwegian Mayo Bottles
Spray-on "Repellent" Could Make Freezers Frost Free


Original Submission

Rethinking Ketchup Packets: New Approach to Slippery Packaging Aims to Cut Food Waste 25 comments

New research aims to cut down on waste -- and consumer frustration -- with a novel approach to creating super slippery industrial packaging. The study establishes a method for wicking chemically compatible vegetable oils into the surfaces of common extruded plastics, like those used for ketchup packets and other condiments.

Source: ScienceDaily

Related: LiquiGlide Slippery Coating Coming Inside Norwegian Mayo Bottles
New "Omniphobic" Coating Created by University of Michigan Researcher


Original Submission

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  • (Score: 2, Interesting) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Saturday July 04 2015, @05:28AM

    by MichaelDavidCrawford (2339) Subscriber Badge <mdcrawford@gmail.com> on Saturday July 04 2015, @05:28AM (#204937) Homepage Journal

    Bruce Tiemann - Michael Tiemann's brother - was a good friend of mine at Caltech. As we were grill steak teriyaki on the Ricketts House Hibachi, he pointed out that because Japanese people "barbecue everything", they get stomach cancer far more than do Americans.

    See, if you heat meat to the point that some of it carbonizes, all those proteins are going to transform into a whole bunch of totally random chemicals, many of which are carcinogenic.

    Perhaps I'll grill some steak teriyaki tomorrow, on America's Independence Day.

    --
    Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
    • (Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 04 2015, @05:39AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 04 2015, @05:39AM (#204940)

      America's Independence Day, what a fucking joke. Americans don't even remember what they're celebrating. Independence from Osama. is it? Or maybe Saddam? No way, who the fucking hell are those guys? Down with ISIS! America #1, yo. Oh looky, I paid off my credit card last month. Bro, we gonna celebrate our independence from debt, by going into more debt!

      • (Score: 0, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 04 2015, @05:47AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 04 2015, @05:47AM (#204942)

        the change in rulership from the political elite... to the economic elite.

        Certainly wasn't freedom from debt, oppression, or taxes.

        Anyone in doubt should take tomorrow to actually read up on the doings of the US, its military, and its government between 1776 and 1900. It is a lot more barbaric than children are taught to understand.

        • (Score: 0, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 04 2015, @05:56AM

          by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 04 2015, @05:56AM (#204944)

          You know, when George Washington led his revolution, he was the wealthiest man on the continent. He fought a war and became a politician to stop a bunch of foreigners from taking his money. Washington was rich, and he wanted to stay rich. Your petty distinction between the political elite and the economic elite is meaningless, because there wasn't any distinction.

          • (Score: 3, Informative) by Gaaark on Saturday July 04 2015, @04:33PM

            by Gaaark (41) on Saturday July 04 2015, @04:33PM (#205050) Journal

            My leg itches.

            --
            --- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
      • (Score: 0, Offtopic) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Saturday July 04 2015, @07:32AM

        by MichaelDavidCrawford (2339) Subscriber Badge <mdcrawford@gmail.com> on Saturday July 04 2015, @07:32AM (#204960) Homepage Journal

        Both my mother's and father's sides of our family are descended from Scotland's, Britain's and France's earliest colonists in the New World. By the time the revolution broke out, while not wealthy my ancestors were politically connected. My Great^N Uncle Roger Sherman signed the Declaration of Independence; on the back of the $2.00 bill - not commonly used but in circulation - Uncle Roger is the fourth from the right standing before the signing table, the tall guy with the tall forehead.

        Roger was one of the last holdouts as he wanted to reestablish peaceful trade with the British, but was unable to do so as Parliament enacted an economic embargo against us.

        On my father's side I am more closely descended from Union Army General-in-Chief George B. McClellan. He raised, equipped and emplaced the North's army at the outbreak of the civil war. But grandpa McClellan found himself strangely unable to order his men to murder their own brothers. The First Lady convinced Commander-in-Chief Lincoln to sack General McClellan, replacing him with William Tecumseh Sherman, who had been relieved of duty as it was thought that he grossly underestimated the number of men required to take Kansas.

        Another Uncle, my mother's father's older brother, lay for eternity in France. He fell not long before The War To End All Wars ended.

        The father of my dear friend Stefan Pietrzcak Youngs was a Polish fighter pilot during World War II. He shot down five V-1 Buzz Bombs by diving on them from above. Quite tragically, Sgt. Pietrczak died in a training accident shortly after the war ended, leaving three-month old Stefan, his brother Kelvin to be raised by their seventeen-year old Irish mother.

        Kelvin's "abiding passion" is a website to honor all the aviators from both sides of World War II; Stefan helps now and I will soon volunteer as a web application programmer:

        Aircrew Remembered [aircrewremembered.com].

        I am directly descended from a boy and a girl who homesteaded a ranch in what is now Lafayette California after walking the Oregon Trail; on the day of their wedding, he was seventeen, she fourteen but even so they made home out in the middle of what at the time was wilderness.

        My extended family once owned much of West Side Santa Cruz; had the held onto it I would be quite wealthy but they lost everything in the depression. Grandpa Crawford heard there was work for mine carpenters in Grass Valley, so he, grandma, Uncle Herb - just a little toddler and my three-month old father left Santa Cruz with what they could fit in a pickup truck.

        Uncle Herb went on to become the VP of Accounting of Boswell Cotton Corporation; his son Charles was the validectorian of his high school, earned a Master's from Harvard and now teaches at a graduate school of architecture.

        The two grandfathers that are my blood relatives served during World War II, one in the navy, the other in the Army Air Force Medical Corps as a surgeon. My naval grandfather also served in the Aleutian Islands during Korea.

        My father joined the Navy in 1957; he damn well knew what would happen. In 1969, despite working an office job on-base in Saigon, he developed a bleeding ulcer of such severity that he was airlifted to Japan where one-third of his stomach was removed. He never told me why he got an ulcer of such severity so suddenly; I expect Mom knows but I don't ask. I don't know but speculate that my father - an Electrical Engineer - was a signals intelligence officer for the NSA:

        Mike?

        Yes Dad?

        Aboard submarines there are some black boxes.

        And there are some quiet men who tend to those black boxes.

        After the war he left the navy, got an MSEE then worked at Mare Island Naval Shipyard as a Civil Service Engineer, mostly writing test plans for submarine electrical systems.

        But after a great deal of quiet contemplation:

        Mike?

        Yes Dad?

        We should not have been in Vietnam.

        Primary among the reasons I write what I do, that I write so much, that I whore my links everywhere, that I use my real name, and I post what really is my social security number, is in part to honor my ancestors, and in part to work towards the day that such wars never, ever happen again.

  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by K_benzoate on Saturday July 04 2015, @05:34AM

    by K_benzoate (5036) on Saturday July 04 2015, @05:34AM (#204938)

    its coating is "completely harmless" and meets safety standards because it "can be made entirely from food".

    Using potatoes and water I can make--entirely from food--a liquid that can (and does) kill thousands of humans a year. I'm not saying their coating isn't safe, but this isn't a valid argument for its safety.

    --
    Climate change is real and primarily caused by human activity.
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 04 2015, @02:07PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 04 2015, @02:07PM (#205015)
      Yeah I agree too.
      1) Using pure water I can make a solid that can kill people.
      2) apparently trans-fats can be harmful, and those are made from food too- just slightly different bonds/shapes.
  • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 04 2015, @05:47AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 04 2015, @05:47AM (#204941)

    Slides all the way up with ease. Cum on, horny guys, rub your own prostate today.

  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by frojack on Saturday July 04 2015, @05:58AM

    by frojack (1554) on Saturday July 04 2015, @05:58AM (#204945) Journal

    While he wouldn't reveal its contents, [Massachusetts Institute of Technology PhD candidate Dave] Smith ... "We've patented the hell out of it," he said.

    And there we have the total failure of the US patent system, (and more than likely government funded research).

    How can you patent something and still worrying about the revealing its contents.

    Personally, I rather suspect the extra half ounce of Mayo would be cheaper, even if it did get stuck in the bottle.

    --
    No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 04 2015, @06:07AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 04 2015, @06:07AM (#204949)

      Also the total failure of the education system which grants degrees based on the expectation of future financial success. Oooo those alumni are going to make so much money. Donate! Donate! Donate!

    • (Score: 1) by seeprime on Saturday July 04 2015, @12:24PM

      by seeprime (5580) on Saturday July 04 2015, @12:24PM (#204998)

      If the coating formula itself is patented the components will be listed each is a specific range. If the patent is valid there is no reason not to disclose the ingredients or the process. Failure to disclose more information reeks of marketing BS.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 04 2015, @03:55PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 04 2015, @03:55PM (#205039)

        Yeah, it's not only that there's no reason not to disclose a patented process... it's against the intent of patents. Patents (at least as they were intended) allow inventors to share research while protecting the profits from that research; they were supposed to alleviate the problem of trade secrets, by which inventors withheld research in order to protect the profits they made from selling materials made from secret formulae.

        Chances are that either this guy hasn't patented something essential in the process, is infringing on someone else's patent somewhere along the line, or is selling snake oil.

    • (Score: 1) by simpgeek on Saturday July 04 2015, @04:40PM

      by simpgeek (5639) on Saturday July 04 2015, @04:40PM (#205052)

      Yeah, this seems decent for consumers but what do the producers get from this? More expensive containers and a slightly fewer sales.

      This seems to fly in the face of what the food industry has worked so hard towards: developing containers that are harder and harder to scrape the remnants out of. There used to be wide mouthed glass containers, then it moved towards awkwardly shaped thin mouthed bottles that render spatulas ineffectual, now there are all kinds of opaque squeezy bottles that you don't even know how much of the product is being wasted. It's another way of disguising true cost by selling you 12oz of something that you can only realistically access 11.75 ozs of.

  • (Score: 1, Offtopic) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Saturday July 04 2015, @07:35AM

    by MichaelDavidCrawford (2339) Subscriber Badge <mdcrawford@gmail.com> on Saturday July 04 2015, @07:35AM (#204961) Homepage Journal

    a "permanently wet" surface inside containers that helps the product slip out.

    I was quite the precious little boy; I don't remember a whole lot about my girlfriend Rainy other than that she was blonde, and at three years old, one year older than I.

    All that time I've been looking for something that will help my product slip in.

    --
    Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
    • (Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 04 2015, @02:49PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 04 2015, @02:49PM (#205022)

      Apparently that is covered by Patent [google.com] linked by penguinoid.

      Claim 1 says:

      A liquid-impregnated surface, said surface comprising a matrix of features spaced sufficiently close to stably contain a liquid therebetween or therewithin.

      Claim 18 says:

      The surface of claim 1, wherein the liquid comprises a member selected from the group consisting of silicone oil, a perfluorocarbon liquid, a perfluoroFluorinated vaccum oil (such as Krytox 1506 or Fromblin 06/6), a fluorinated coolant (e.g., perfluoro-tripentylamine sold as FC-70, manufactured by 3M), an ionic liquid, a fluorinated ionic liquid that is immiscible with water, a silicone oil comprising PDMS, a fluorinated silicone oil, a liquid metal, an eletro-rheological fluid, a magneto-rheological fluid, a ferrofluid, a dielectric liquid, a hydrocarbon liquid, a fluorocarbon liquid, a refrigerant, a vacuum oil, a phase-change material, a semi-liquid, grease, synovial fluid, bodily fluid.

      • (Score: 2, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 04 2015, @03:58PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 04 2015, @03:58PM (#205041)

        Oh my god. That's horrifying.

        And, you've managed to make one of MDC's trolls relevant. That's even more horrifying.

      • (Score: 2) by nukkel on Sunday July 05 2015, @08:51AM

        by nukkel (168) on Sunday July 05 2015, @08:51AM (#205234)

        That's why the title mentions "Coming Inside Mayo Bottles".

  • (Score: 3, Informative) by kaszz on Saturday July 04 2015, @07:53AM

    by kaszz (4211) on Saturday July 04 2015, @07:53AM (#204963) Journal

    its coating is "completely harmless"

    Yeah, we heard that one before. Heard that one about Santa Claus and Little Red Riding Hood?

    and meets safety standards

    Set by corporate lobbyists. No confidence.

    because it "can be made entirely from food".

    Sewage is also made from food, even salmonella. But they are not advisable to ingest anyway.

    • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 04 2015, @04:27PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 04 2015, @04:27PM (#205048)

      The new Olestra.

    • (Score: 2) by Gaaark on Saturday July 04 2015, @04:40PM

      by Gaaark (41) on Saturday July 04 2015, @04:40PM (#205053) Journal

      People are also made of food, and food made of people!

      A recursive statement for this site (recursive?) :/

      And people also kill, and come in yellow, red and green...

      --
      --- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 04 2015, @09:22AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 04 2015, @09:22AM (#204981)

    my favorite mayo comes in glass jars. You scoop it out with a spoon or use a knife to take some out and spread somehere. When finished jar can be washed and re-used for something else.

    • (Score: 3, Funny) by Magic Oddball on Saturday July 04 2015, @10:06AM

      by Magic Oddball (3847) on Saturday July 04 2015, @10:06AM (#204983) Journal

      The problem with glass jars is roughly the same as with plastic (or glass) bottles/containers, though — because spoons & knives only touch a relatively tiny surface area when run along the inside of the jar and the narrowed mouth severely limits the use of a spatula, we end up with quite a bit of "product" stuck to the sides in the end.

      In my household, it eventually leads to months or years of "ugh, it'll have to be soaked; I'll wash it out this/next weekend" culminating in "was this stuff really that color/texture when I bought it? never mind, no way I'm opening it now" and a direct trip to the garbage can. :-p

      • (Score: 4, Informative) by fritsd on Saturday July 04 2015, @06:45PM

        by fritsd (4586) on Saturday July 04 2015, @06:45PM (#205081) Journal

        Buy This Gadget [wikipedia.org]

        If you can't get it in your country, well the stick is made of plastic-coated wood, and the scrapy thing is a semicircle of rubber-like material with a cap on it that fits tightly on the stick. Maybe you can assemble something similar yourself.

        The one on the Wikipedia page looks like a single piece of plastic, maybe it can be 3D-printed.

  • (Score: 4, Informative) by maxwell demon on Saturday July 04 2015, @10:09AM

    by maxwell demon (1608) on Saturday July 04 2015, @10:09AM (#204985) Journal

    While he wouldn't reveal its contents, [Massachusetts Institute of Technology PhD candidate Dave] Smith told Fast Company magazine that LiquiGlide has other potential uses, such as preventing clogs in oil and gas lines. "We've patented the hell out of it," he said.

    The whole point of the patent system was that you have to disclose the details of your invention. That's the deal: You say how you did it, and in return you get a limited-time protection from others doing the same.

    If they wouldn't reveal the contents, they shouldn't have been able to patent it. Patents are meant to describe inventions, not mere ideas.

    --
    The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
    • (Score: 5, Informative) by penguinoid on Saturday July 04 2015, @11:12AM

      by penguinoid (5331) on Saturday July 04 2015, @11:12AM (#204989)

      They may have gotten around that by explaining in detail the physical structure they use (basically, a surface that is rough at the micro level). Then they impregnate the surface with a matching (hydrophobic or oleophobic) fluid. Though it would seem to me that a "rough surface" shouldn't be patentable. What would seem to me is they should patent their method of making a rough surface. On the other hand, I can see why they might be able to make the whole thing edible (as in composed of food, not just made from something that used to be food).

      The patent [google.com]

      --
      RIP Slashdot. Killed by greedy bastards.
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 04 2015, @10:54PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 04 2015, @10:54PM (#205132)

      Probably makes for good publicity to call it 'secret' even if it's patented.

    • (Score: 2) by forkazoo on Tuesday July 07 2015, @01:19AM

      by forkazoo (2561) on Tuesday July 07 2015, @01:19AM (#205939)

      It's possible the journalist was just too lazy to read the patents.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 04 2015, @04:29PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 04 2015, @04:29PM (#205049)

    Producers would rather see you throw away the bottle with whatever remains inside, and open up a new one.

    You paid for all the mayonaise, even the remainder you can't get out of the bottle.

    • (Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Sunday July 05 2015, @09:36AM

      by maxwell demon (1608) on Sunday July 05 2015, @09:36AM (#205239) Journal

      That's probably the reason why they claim that consumers will use (and thus buy) more of the mayonnaise.

      Anyway, even if it reduces how often consumers buy the bottle, that may well be offset by consumers switching to producers using that system. And if everyone uses the system, someone trying not to will be at a very distinct disadvantage. It's one of the few cases where the tragedy of the commons is actually an advantage for the consumer.

      --
      The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
  • (Score: 1) by Type44Q on Saturday July 04 2015, @06:47PM

    by Type44Q (4347) on Saturday July 04 2015, @06:47PM (#205083)

    slippery coating

    coming inside... mayo bottles

    Don't even try to suggest it's just me.