Zenbird Editorial TeamJapanese paper company Pepal Co., Ltd. has developed “Pan no Kami” (Bread Paper), a sustainable paper made by upcycling flour and crumbs from sliced bread. The project was a joint effort with the major bakery firm Shikishima Baking Co., Ltd., more belovedly known as Pasco.
The new paper will be used for bread-shaped business cards for Pasco, presenting a new application for a food byproduct that is typically recycled into animal feed, contributing to a more circular society.
The collaboration began in November 2023, when Pasco’s research and development team approached Pepal to explore new uses for the flour generated when slicing its popular loaves. Pepal, which has experience developing paper from food byproducts like vegetables and fruit, accepted the challenge.
Development faced significant technical hurdles. Wheat, the main component of bread, becomes highly viscous when wet, causing it to stick to papermaking machinery and hinder stable production. Pepal leveraged its proprietary expertise from creating paper using rice as an adhesive to overcome this issue.
The team initially trialled a “three-layer” papermaking method to ensure printability but found it lost the rustic texture of bread. To achieve their goal of a paper with a warm, tactile feel that could also be printed on, they pursued a more complex “single-layer” process. After approximately 18 months of refinement, they perfected “Pan no Kami.” The final product contains 2-3% bread flour, with the single-layer technique ensuring the bread “crusts” are visible on the surface.
The first application of the paper is a business card shaped like a slice of bread. Pepal intends to expand the use of “Pan no Kami” beyond business cards and will continue to explore creating new value from various underutilised resources to help solve corporate and societal challenges.
[Reference] Pepal Co., Ltd. Topics (Japanese)
