It’s freezing cold up in the mountains. You want to heat up some food but you can’t start a fire. What can you do? The agriculture council has come up with a solution using grounded oyster shells.
The convenience of ready to eat meal packs is that you just have to pour the content into a pot and heat it up on the stove. But to elderly people and hikers out in the mountains, heating up food could be hazardous.
The agriculture council was able to find a solution by putting discarded oyster shells to good use. Taiwan throws away about 1.7 million metric tons of oyster shells every year. Experts have discovered that grounded oyster shells can be made into heat packs. When it interacts with water, it will produce heat. The water temperature can reach up to 90C after about seven minutes. The hot water can heat up the meal pack to 50C and the food stays hot for 20 minutes.
This is good news for the US$38 million ready-to-eat meal pack industry in Taiwan. Currently the council is applying for a patent for the technology. The council guarantees that the heat packs will be totally safe and environmentally friendly.