Food is the only product class typically consumed 3 times per day by every person; consequently, in terms of volume, food packaging accounts for almost 50% of total packaging waste, which is a large quantity (Vimal Katizar, 2017).
Traditional packaging products used on the FOOD market are represented by 99% plastic of fossil origin with only 1% represented by bioplastics. However, such indiscriminate use of synthetic packaging films has led to a serious ecological problem.
As active drivers for sustainable development, BioBarr Consortium has teamed up to proactively searching for alternatives to fossil based raw materials to be applied in the food packaging sector, contributing in an innovative manner to facing and tackle the economic and environmental problems represented by the use of fossil fuels.
BioBarr project aims to develop along 54 months, at European level, a new food packaging system starting from the innovative biopolymers family of Poly-Hydroxy-Alkanoates (PHAs). The biopolymer, derived from natural bacterial fermentation of agricultural wastes or co-products, will represent the support on which further functionalization, based on surface treatments or lamination treatments, will be developed for obtaining an environmentally sustainable packaging able to guarantee the optimal preservation of foods. This solution is a potential alternative to current fossil-based packaging solutions such as PP or PE.
Innovative functionalisation treatments have been tested taking into account the criteria that apply to conventional packaging materials associated with foods: barrier properties (water, gases, light, aroma) but also optical properties, strength, welding and moulding properties, marking and printing properties, migration/scalping requirements, chemical and temperature resistance properties, machinability, shelf-life in final applications, cost/benefit ratio, market perspectives, environmental and economic sustainability of the process.
The project involved companies and research centers from four EU countries, able to cover the entire value chain. The Project Coordinator is Tecnoalimenti, a research organisation for the food sector with over 40 years experience in food industry research and multidisciplinary projects.
