According to Consumer Reports, up to 15% of condiments get thrown out with the “empty” bottle. But a non-stick coating called LiquiGlide could eliminate that waste altogether, as well as remove the need to ever do this again:
Instead, getting the last bit of ketchup out of the bottle could be as easy as this:
The inside of the ketchup bottle above is coated with LiquiGlide, a lubricating layer that liquids slide along instead of stick to. It was invented by MIT professor Kripa K. Varanasi and grad student J. David Smith, who were developing a superhydrophobic (or water-repelling) surface for industrial uses, like preventing ice from sticking to aeroplanes, reports the New York Times.
A very reasonable request, if you ask us. So Smith and Varanasi developed a non-stick ketchup bottle, won an MIT-sponsored entrepreneur contest, and started LiquiGlide in 2012.
A number of companies are starting to use the lubricant in their packaging to stop glue, toothpaste, and paint from sticking to the inside of containers. Smith and Varanasi say that an easy-to-squeeze mayonnaise bottle, like the one in this video, is less than a year away.
Inexplicably, ketchup makers “have not shown much interest” in the product so far, reports the NYT. So to get that list bit, you’ll just have to keep doing gymnastics for the time being.
[via the New York Times]