New material can help extract ketchup easily

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London, Nov 13: A slippery material that causes water, oil and even jam to slide off easily could also help extract the last drops of ketchup out of its bottle.

Scientists have created the material after copying the leaves of the carnivorous Nepenthes pitcher plants.

Their research promises to usher in new self-cleaning surfaces that never get dirty and could even be used to coat the inside of bottles and jars to help consumers get all of the food inside, the journal Nature reports.

Anyone who is partial to some tomato sauce with their food will know how difficult it is to get the final dregs from ketchup bottles, according to the Telegraph.

The new material, however, repels both water and oil based liquids, meaning condiments such as tomato ketchup or jam slide off it without leaving any bit of residue.

Joanna Aizenberg, a materials scientists at Harvard University, US, said: ‘It is a problem we all face – we have a bottle of sauce and we are trying to get the last bit out but nothing is happening.’

‘If we used substance like ours to coat the inside of bottles, it would be possible to get it all out,’ Aizenberg added.

IANS