# Engineered E. coli turns kimchi-radish waste into bioplastic in lab study

_Monday, August 17, 2026 at 5:00 PM EDT · Science · Latest · Tier 2 — Notable_

![Engineered E. coli turns kimchi-radish waste into bioplastic in lab study — Primary](https://scx2.b-cdn.net/gfx/news/2026/genome-scale-model-gui.jpg)

Researchers at the World Institute of Kimchi engineered E. coli to produce biodegradable poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) using radish-processing hydrolyzate as its sole feedstock. A strain with gltA and acnA deletions reached polymer content equal to 71.95% of dry cell weight, a 78% increase over the parental strain. In fed-batch fermentation, the process reached 5.75 grams per liter and 75.60% polymer content by dry cell weight. The work was published in Bioresource Technology.

## Sources

- [Phys.org - latest science and technology news stories](https://phys.org/news/2026-08-coli-kimchi-radish-biodegradable-bioplastic.html)

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Retrieved: 2026-08-18T00:23:59.594Z
Publisher: Tech & Business (techandbusiness.org)