Melvin Pascall, professor, Department of Food Science and Technology, College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences, has been awarded a 2025-2026 Fulbright U.S. Scholar Award for “Development of a Bio-based Packaging Material Using Sargassum Seaweed from Jamaica.” From September 2025 – June 2026, Pascall will be based at The University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona Campus, Jamaica.
The arrival of sargassum at Jamaican beaches has placed a severe burden on the tourism, fishing, aesthetics and the country's environmental health. This seaweed travels as large floating mats and deposits itself along the beaches of various countries in the Caribbean, Gulf of Mexico and the United States. Current efforts to address this issue are costly and drain limited resources.
“This Fulbright project will be a collaboration with the University of the West Indies to use sargassum natans, a seaweed, to make biobased plastic for food and non-food packaging applications. My project will be a component that has not been attempted before in Jamaica, the conversion of sargassum to plastic films for packaging use. The objectives of this project will be to harvest sargassum from Jamaican beaches; extract sodium alginate from it for plastic film making; remove arsenic as a heavy metal toxicant; test the films for food and non-food packaging applications; and publish the data and methods developed,” said Pascall.
Since tourism, recreation and fishing are major industries in these regions, sargassum has had a negative impact on the economies of these countries.
This proposed study will work collaboratively with the current investigative endeavors of researcher at UWI. Examples of these efforts include research to convert sargassum for use as fertilizers, mulch and biofuel.
“The use of sargassum to produce biobased films for food packaging is an excellent opportunity to convert a nuisance and a drain on scarce resources into a useful commodity that has potential to increase employment and income, clean the environment, and help reverse an environmental disaster,” noted Pascall.
“At the end of this project, I will bring the skills that I learned back to my food packaging laboratory at Ohio State. This will enhance my background knowledge and hands-on experience with the use of marine-based polysaccharides for the making of sustainable packaging materials. This will also open opportunities for my Ohio State students to travel and do research with sargassum, and for students at UWI to travel and do plastic packaging research at Ohio State.”
This is the fourth collaborative project between Pascall and the faculty at the University of the West Indies. Previous collaborations include food packaging workshops for members of the Jamaica Manufacturers' Association, the creation of a MSc degree in tropical food and agro-processing technology at the university, and the convening of two science fairs for high school students in Jamaica. Pascall also worked with the Jamaican Bureau of Standards to upgrade the packaging testing laboratory and provided training for their technicians.
Fulbright
The Fulbright Scholar Program is administered by the Institute of International Education and is sponsored by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the U.S. Department of State.
For more information about the Fulbright Scholar Program contact Joanna Kukielka-Blaser. View a complete list of Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program recipients.