Holiday cooking season is here, and in most kitchens the leftovers get the same treatment: a sheet of aluminum foil torn off the roll. A Canadian invention is changing that habit. It’s a piece of cloth coated in beeswax that molds around a bowl with the warmth of your hands, and America’s Test Kitchen found it seals almost as well as plastic wrap. Here’s what it is, what it replaces, and what it can’t do.
In short
- It’s a beeswax food wrap: fabric coated with wax, invented in Canada in 2008 by Toni Desrosiers, the founder of Abeego.
- It replaces foil and plastic wrap for covering bowls and wrapping bread, cheese, fruit and vegetables.
- America’s Test Kitchen named Abeego its winner: it “created tight seals that preserved food almost as well as plastic wrap.”
- It can’t go in the oven, the microwave or the dishwasher, and it isn’t meant for raw meat or fish.
What it is
El Cronista describes the wrap as fabric made of hemp and organic cotton, infused with beeswax, tree resin and jojoba oil. The idea comes from Canadian nutritionist Toni Desrosiers. “In 2008 I invented Abeego, the original beeswax wrap,” she writes on the Abeego website.
Her reasoning is simple: food doesn’t need to be sealed airtight. “If living food needed to be wrapped in airtight wrap the rind, peel or skin would be airtight. It’s not.” The wrap lets food breathe while protecting it, and El Cronista reports it is now sold in more than 1,500 stores in 40 countries.
What the tests found
America’s Test Kitchen tested reusable wraps on halved bread loaves, avocados, lemons, onions and bowls of grapes. The stickier wraps kept bread nearly as fresh as plastic wrap. The stiffer ones let avocados oxidize and lemons dry out. Its winner, Abeego, kept its cling through more than 10 washes and cost about $6 per wrap.
How to use it
- Mold it by hand: Bee’s Wrap says to “use the warmth of your hands to gently mold the wrap into place.”
- Let hot food cool first, then cover the bowl or wrap the food.
- Wash it in cold water with mild soap, and let it air dry.
- Count on about a year of regular use. When it stops sticking, it’s done.
- Don’t throw it away: Abeego suggests cutting old wraps into garden ties or fire starters, and Bee’s Wrap says they’re compostable.
The limit
The wrap replaces foil for covering and wrapping, not for cooking. Bee’s Wrap advises to “avoid hot water, microwaves, ovens, dishwashers, and other heat sources, as heat can soften the natural wax coating,” and to “avoid using them with raw meat or fish.” For roasting, grilling or lining a pan, foil stays in the drawer.
America’s Test Kitchen also noted that onion odor lingered through several washes before fading, and that the wraps work best with foods that don’t have strong smells. And they cost more up front than a roll of foil.
Foil still has plenty of jobs: here’s what its two sides are for, the one mistake to avoid in the air fryer, and the spot that keeps bread fresh for a full week.
A square of cloth, a little beeswax, the warmth of your hands. That’s the trick.
