Biopac, a UK bio-based and sustainable packaging design and manufacturing company, has joined the ISA-Pack international consortium to take a leading role in developing packaging that will help fight food spoilage.
With a 3 million ($3.7 million) grant from the European Commission, ISA-Pack has begun a three-year project to develop fully sustainable packaging for perishable food. According to estimates, food and beverages represent more than 70 percent of the global packaging market, which has an annual growth rate of more than 4 percent. The ISA-Pack project seeks to reduce retailer supply chain waste of fresh food by 75 percent.
In addition to extending the shelf life and improving the quality of fresh foods, the new packaging will be designed to reduce packaging waste. ISA-Pack will invite food processors, retailers, and consumers to help shape the program.
The ISA-Pack international consortium is developing innovative, sustainabale packaging films that it says will help reduce food spoilage and packaging waste. (Source: Biopac)
"The opportunity to combine the use of sustainable materials and create significant supply chain benefits in extending shelf life is a major leap forward in fresh food packaging," Biopac director Mark Brigden said in a press release.
Biopac makes food service biodegradable and recycled packaging and cleaning products, bioplastic medical disposables, and compostable mulches, films, and pots for gardeners and plant nurseries. The materials it uses include corn starch, potato starch from waste potatoes, FDA-certified recycled post-consumer waste, wild bulrush, naturally shed palm leaf sheath, sugarcane waste, and sustainably harvested wood.
We've reported before on demonstrations of compostable packaging by manufacturers such as BASF. These products include a prototype snack bag and flexible, biodegradable film used as a mulch in agriculture.
The ISA-Pack project's main goal is to develop PHB (polyhydroxybutyrate) copolymer stretch films and HB (hydroxybutyrate) copolymer MAP (modified atmosphere packaging) gas barrier sheets and films from sustainable feedstocks. In addition, ISA-Pack wants to develop an accurate, tunable, and reliable intelligent indicator system that can be printed on to packaging materials. The system will combine integrated time/temperature indicators for monitoring bacterial growth with food freshness indicators.
The consortium plans to validate its results within industrial packaging production processes, and it will undertake a full life cycle and economic assessment of the products developed through the project. The ISA-Pack research and development program is being funded by the European Commission's 7th Framework Programme, which combines research and development efforts from five countries.
You may be right about cost differences, but your previous comment was about length of time. Planting trees is a good idea for a lot of reasons, including oxygen and carbon sequestering. But it takes several decades to grow the right kind of trees big enough to make harvesting worthwhile. And you have to rotate your crops, as it were, meaning go away for several decades while you're regrowing that grove, and harvest other groves. I live in Santa Cruz County in the redwoods and they don't grow like weeds.
I have absolutely no data to back me up BUT I find it hard to believe that it's not cheaper to grow a tree (basically free) than to haul oil half way around the world in a ship that has to be protected by our Navy, Marines, Airforce, Army (hope I didn't leave anyone out), etc.
It doesn't require much security for a tree no matter what variety it is or where it's planted. If there aren't enough fricken trees THEN PLANT MORE. Besides they will absorbe the CO2 that the tankers are producing to move the oil.
I live in Georgia the pine tree capital of the world. They grow like weeds here and will come up through concrete driveways and in your gutters.
robatnorcross, thanks for the positive feedback. I learn a lot from the other posts, too, as well as the comments. I also remember those antique glass bottles for soda pop and milk. Whether they were reused or recycled (grinding them up), they were superior containers in many ways. Some plastic containers for liquids barely last til you get them home from the grocery store. It takes a lot longer to grow and harvest a timber forest (of the right kind of trees) to make paper than it does to produce dino-based plastic. Meanwhile, both timber and petroleum are becoming rare. Maybe we should just keep re-using cloth bags.
Tim, I'm with you on this one. PET is the most recyclable plastic in the landfill, and also the most plentiful one, which is sad considering what's being made out of it, like bridges, car seats, and heavy truck parts. Educating the public is definitely a big goal. But so is better coordination among infrastructure members, such as sorting facilities, plastic regrinders and PTF operations.
When I was a kid back in the dark ages, we didn't have a problem with recycling soda bottles. It was called 2 cents for every bottle (glass) returned to the bottling plant. I don't know how many times they were "recycled" but I guess when they got too scratched up or chipped the thing was crushed, melted and turned into a new bottle.
We also had antique containers for milk called MILK BOTTLES made from glass and probably went through the same "recycling" protocol as above.
I still can't figure out how a plastic bag from the grocer is better than a paper one. It seems to me that it should be easier to grow a new forest of trees than to dig a new oil well to make plastic for bags.
By the way, You guys get an "A" for this website. I look forward to it every day. My only suggestion is that you start publishing it TWICE a day. i learn more from one issue of these columns than a full month's worth of CNN and FOX.
Perhaps one of the worst things about the PET bottles ending up in landfills is that the PET material takes well to being recycled. The missing component is getting people to put them in the correct container.
Beth, biodegradable water bottles might actually not be a good thing, since there are so many of them in landfills and biodegrading plastic in landfills is considered the last option. The best, first option is recycling and the PET material most plastic water bottles are made of is highly recyclable, more than most other plastics, in fact. That's the same material that became heavy truck parts http://www.designnews.com/author.asp?section_id=1392&doc_id=241854 structural, weight-bearing elements of the Scottish bridge http://www.designnews.com/author.asp?section_id=1392&doc_id=237384 and Ford's car seat material http://www.designnews.com/document.asp?doc_id=236706
Nadine, I'm also in Northern California. The film material described in this research project is aimed primarily at meats. It agree, it would be great if we had an alternative like this one promises here in the US, too.
Naperlou, idea is good and its necessary to safe guard the food materials from spoilage in an ecco friendlily way, but is it expensive. Now a day's most of the restaurants are charging extra for packing service because they are using food grade materials for this. If this is a biodegradable and ecco friendly wrapper, then I think packing cost can be shoot up further.
By refining topologies and using new fluid technology, Moog's new peak sine drive controller increases available power without increasing controller volume.
Lantronix Inc. has expanded its line of controllers for sensor networks with the release of a rugged controller that improves management of automation systems used in a number of industries, including manufacturing, oil and gas, and chemicals.
Inspired by the hooks a parasitic worm uses to penetrate its host's intestines, the Karp Lab has invented a flexible adhesive patch covered with microneedles that adheres well to wet, soft tissues, but doesn't cause damage when removed.
From Dell / Intel® New Paradigms in Design Work Scott Hamilton, vertical market strategist for Dell Precision workstations, 5/2/2013 3
Early in my career, I worked as a draftsman and remember the days of drawing on vellum with numbered pencils and Mylar with plastic lead. This was a fun experience in the sense that I ...
I've been using workstations for more than 10 years and love finding ways to get more performance from my system. With demanding professional applications that require more power each ...
A lasting memory from my first job as an engineer in an auto assembly plant is standing on hard concrete at six in the morning, vending-machine coffee clutched in hand, listening to ...
A quick look into the merger of two powerhouse 3D printing OEMs and the new leader in rapid prototyping solutions, Stratasys. The industrial revolution is now led by 3D printing and engineers are given the opportunity to fully maximize their design capabilities, reduce their time-to-market and functionally test prototypes cheaper, faster and easier. Bruce Bradshaw, Director of Marketing in North America, will explore the large product offering and variety of materials that will help CAD designers articulate their product design with actual, physical prototypes. This broadcast will dive deep into technical information including application specific stories from real world customers and their experiences with 3D printing. 3D Printing is
To save this item to your list of favorite Design News content so you can find it later in your Profile page, click the "Save It" button next to the item.
If you found this interesting or useful, please use the links to the services below to share it with other readers. You will need a free account with each service to share an item via that service.
Tweet This
6 
