Engineering students at Johns Hopkins who were tasked with coming up with an invention for a product design course came up with an edible adhesive to hold a burrito together called “Tastee Tape”. One of the team members behind the tortilla sealant, Tyler Guarino, a chemical and biomolecular engineering undergraduate, joined Cheddar News to discuss the process of how the tape came to be and why. "This is a product that everyone can relate to," Guarino said, "Its a really simple idea that solves a really relatable problem."

Closing Bell

Johns Hopkins Students Create Edible Burrito Tape to Solve 'Relatable Problem'

Welcome back to closing bell on cheddar news. So a burrito can be a beautiful thing. You carefully select the ingredients and combine them into a fresh, warm tortilla. But then you go to eat it. Let's face it, it's a mess. And after we watched helplessly as our tasty creation crumbles within a few bites. But now a group of students at john Hopkins University wants to make the breaking burrito, the collapsible capsule, if you will, a thing of the past because they invented an edible tape that holds the sultry structure together. Joining me now is Tyler grano chemical and biomolecular student at john Hopkins University and co creator of tasty tape. Tyler tell us more about this edible adhesive. How does it work? Thank you for having me. So tasty tape is an edible adhesive tape, just like a regular piece of tape, but it's completely edible and you can use it on your burritos to keep it together and have a mess free experience. So how did this idea come about? Were you guys just tired of everything falling out of things. Tell me what motivated you to make this. So this was made for a product design course that we were taking. So we were tasked to come up with an invention that we thought we can bring to life. And so during that idea phase, every little thing we were doing, we were trying to be like how can we make this better. And so one of my teammates are in, she was eating a burrito and it was just going all over creating such a mess. And she was like, you know what, this is the idea that we can fix, we can make a tape to hold that burrito together and have a mess. Free enjoyable lunch experience. Now it had to be kind of hard to find them right materials and right ingredients to make this tape. So how long from start to finish did it take to do this? So this is a year long course that we've been working on this project for about a year now. And really what it was was looking at real tape and the different components of making up tape, there's a backbone and an adhesive. And so we wanted to find different ingredients that can act as edible counterparts for each um piece. And we did a lot of trial and error and different combinations and formulations of all different ingredients until we were able to get a product that is clear in color, no taste no noticeable texture, but had a really strong strength to hold a big juicy burrito together Now, is it just burritos that this thing can hold? What else can we put this adhesive on? So our main focus our wraps, burritos, any sort of food that's held together in the tortilla. But you know, we've had people reaching out to us saying that they think it can be used to, you know, adhere decorations on cakes, um and other things like that. So yeah, there's probably many other uses out there that we haven't even thought of yet. I think, I'm pretty sure it's safe to say this invention if we call it that has gone viral. What kind of feedback have you gotten from the public for your tape? Yeah, a lot of positive feedback. I think this is a product that everyone can relate to. Everyone's had that messy food experience where they want to just have a nice meal and it ends up all over the place. So it's a really simple idea that solves a really relatable problem. So people are eating it up. They love it. So what's the plans now? Are you going to create a company? Are you expanding on the different flavors? Are we thinking, you know, adhesive glue sticks? What's what's next? Tasty glue sticks? Yeah. So a few of us on the team are staying at Hopkins another year to continue to work on the project. We are thinking flavoring the tape, double sided tape, um, things like that and just really expand the line and see where it can take us. But the ultimate goal is to get out on the market. All right, thanks to Tyler Carano Chemical and biomolecular student at john Hopkins University and co creator of tasty tape? Hero right there