By Cid Campos


PHOTO: Tyler Guarino / CNN Philippines

While brainstorming ideas for their product design course, four US engineering students turned an accident into an opportunity, and created the world's first edible tape.

"Erin was eating a burrito and the tortilla opened all over her," says Tyler Guarino, one of the four researchers. "It hit her then -- this is a problem that we can solve." Guarino, Erin Walsh, Marie Eric and Rachel Nie, seniors at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, realized then that lunch turned out to be just the inspiration they needed for their innovative product.

The team spent months studying tape to understand its elements. They saw that tape consists of an adhesive to make sure it sticks and a foundation which holds all of it together, which they then aimed to replace with “edible counterparts”.

The exact ingredients used for their product remain a secret due to a pending patent application, but the students made sure that the tape was clear, colorless, tasteless, and did not have a noticeable texture. They had to test 50 different formulations to perfect their product, says Guarino.

Today, their prototype product is dubbed, “Tastee Tape”.

Guarino explains the three simple steps to using Tastee Tape. First is to take a strip of tape from its waxed paper sheet. Second, they wet the tape in order to activate its properties, and lastly, you can finally apply it to your burrito.

While their prototype consists of tape strips of wax paper, they’re trying to package it on a roll like you would see in office tape.