Someone’s just invented edible tape that stops your burrito falling apart

We’ve all been there – rushed to get a delicious burrito for dinner to find more of it ends up in your lap than in your mouth.

But never fear, a clever team of engineering students have come up with a solution for that.

Inspired by their own experiences with messy lunches, the chemical and biomolecular engineers have created an edible sticky tape.

Dubbed the Tastee Tape, it is made of ‘food-grade fibrous scaffold’ and an ‘organic adhesive’ that makes sure beans, rice, guacamole and salsa stay inside the tortilla.

But it turns out keeping a burrito together is no small feat. The team tested a ‘multitude’ of ingredients and combinations before settling on a final recipe that’s edible, safe, and has the ‘tensile strength you can trust to hold together a fat burrito’.

‘First, we learned about the science around tape and different adhesives, and then we worked to find edible counterparts,’ said Tyler Guarino, who teamed up with fellow engineering seniors Marie Eric, Rachel Nie, and Erin Walsh on the project.

After months of prototyping, the final product was a rectangular strip measuring half an inch by two inches, which comes affixed to sheets of waxed paper.

To use it, all you have to do is remove a strip from the sheet, wet it thoroughly to activate it, and apply to your lunch, dinner, or favourite snack. 

‘What I can say is that all its ingredients are safe to consume, are food grade, and are common food and dietary additives,’ Tyler added.

‘Tastee Tape allows you to put full faith in your tortilla, and enjoy your meal, mess-free.’

The students declined to disclose their secret formula as they’re in the process of applying for a patent.

So, it looks like you’ll need to wait till you can get your hands on the magic tortilla tape.

The invention could significantly upgrade one of the messiest food experiences involving a burrito, taco, gyro or wrap.

The tape was part of Johns Hopkins University’s annual Design Day engineering showcase.

Apart from the edible tortilla tape, the other inventions included a solar-powered mosquito trap and a computational approach to subway travel.

MORE : North Korea is claiming that Kim Jong-il invented the burrito

MORE : Olympic hopeful hit with four-year doping ban blames pork burrito for positive steroid test