Groovy flat-packed pasta could help revolutionize food production

Flat-packed pasta that regains its shape as it cooks could play a big role in food production and shipping.

This is an Inside Science story. Pasta is beloved for its diversity of shapes, from tubes of penne to spirals of fusilli. However, these bulky 3D structures often require large packages to store. Now scientists have developed flat pasta that can morph into familiar shapes when cooked, which could make them easier to ship not just on Earth, but in space. The researchers drew inspiration from the way flat-packed items such as furniture made storage and shipping easier. They sought to make food that could package flat for slimmer containers, "since food packaging is one of the biggest sources of waste in the world," said study senior author Lining Yao, director of Carnegie Mellon University's Morphing Matter Lab in Pittsburgh. Traditional pasta already changes shape when cooked, expanding and softening when boiled. In the new study, Yao and her colleagues harnessed these properties to create their morphing pasta.