Innovative packaging with biofoils

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Innovative packaging with biofoils

One look inside a store’s freezer will do. Nothing stays unpackaged in here. Fruits, vegetables, meat and cheese, everything is packaged and even in multiple layers. Groceries are supposed to last as long as possible, be germfree, filled with nutrients and should look appetizing on top of everything else. That this is only possible if food is packaged in sophisticated composites is something we like to overlook.

Biodegradable packaging is one of the many new trends in the packaging industry. The industry sector is hoping to improve its CO2 balance through the increased use of biological materials, e.g. so-called bioplastics and to establish new production cycles.

In the future fruits, fish, yoghurt and other foods are also meant to be packaged with Wheylayer.

Unlike traditional plastics, bioplastics are generally identified as materials that are manufactured to a substantial extent from renewable resources. Depending on their application up to a 100 percent bio-ratio is technically possible; another criterion is the biodegradability, which isn’t subject to any time limits however, therefore makes its proper disposal difficult in the private sector and also causes problems for the manufacturer. Oftentimes the products are non-compostable, since they were mixed with synthetic additives and correspondingly have to first be separated in complex procedures or have to be directly burned. And so in a study during the Soccer World Cup 2008 on sustainability of biodegradable cups, compostable disposable cups did not fare better, but also no worse than regular plastic cups. One case from the year 2011 is the highly praised and also much attacked cup made by DANONE (Dannon), which advertises being an organic product but which cannot easily be composted and has to be burned with high energy expenditure.

Pro and Contra of Bioplastics; Source: T. Seilnacht (table was translated into English)

The most important raw materials for bioplastics are agricultural raw materials such as starch, cellulose and plant oils which are attained primarily from corn, wheat, potatoes, sugar beets, wood and oil plants. Two bioplastics groups matter the most: biopolymers made from thermoplastic starch (cornstarch) dominate with a market share of 80%. Since pure starch takes on moisture, it generally only makes up one component from which bioplastics are being manufactured and is mixed with conventional plastics.
The second material with very promising possible applications is PLA (polylactic acid), extracted from cornstarch. It can not just be used in plastic surgery as a skin smoothing compound, but can also be processed in various procedures into foil packaging. The use of biodegradable biopolymers makes sense everywhere where the material only needs to keep for a limited amount of time, e.g. for plastic bags, yoghurt cups or packaging film in the prepack area. At this point the products that are currently available on the market are not competitive yet due to higher production costs and are thus leading a corresponding niche existence.

Sustainability determines buying behavior

In a market study from 2011, Frost & Sullivan expect that the gains from bioplastics just in Europe alone will increase from currently 142 million Euros to more than 475 million Euros by 2016. According to Frost & Sullivan, particularly short-lived disposable food packaging which makes up about 12% of the total packaging material based on the study could be substituted by bioplastics with similar great characteristics.

Surging raw material costs and increasing consumer environmental awareness could therefore lead to cost-effective mass production of bioplastics. After all, according to a study by the GfK Panel Services Deutschland from 2009, eco-friendly packaging is an important reason to buy for approximately two-thirds of consumers. Three-quarters of consumers attach great importance to packaging recycling. About 40% want to be more reliably informed about environmental friendliness and sustainability of the product and the packaging material.

New technologies

Completely dispensing with packaging is also no viable solution. Even these days up to 50% of all foods spoil in developing nations, because they are not protected during storage and shipment. Oxygen, bacteria, fungi and moisture damage foods. Packaging protects, albeit in varying degrees. And so there are packaging solutions, known under the term “active packaging“, which keep moisture and air away from the packaged goods via synthetic barrier layers and thus ensure a longer shelf life. Even though this creates a composite made from high-tech materials, which is manufactured under high energy expenditure to pack five slices of cheese, the protection of packaged foods however, always has top priority.
New technologies open up new possibilities in food packaging for retailers. Scientists and packaging producers have worked for several years on biological barrier layers, which form an alternative to conventional fossil materials like EVOH (ethylene vinyl alcohol copolymer) and replace chemical materials such as PVDC (Polyvinylidene chloride).

Whey keeps things fresh

Scientists and technicians from the dairy industry and packaging industry in collaboration with the Fraunhofer Institute for Process Engineering and Packaging in Freising, Germany, have developed a natural alternative to conventional foils with the European Union “Wheylayer“ project. This is a foil coating made from whey.
Whey is a natural product that incurs during the manufacturing of cheese. Now scientists managed to treat whey in a way so that it can subsequently be applied as a layer. This layer exhibits very excellent barrier characteristics against oxygen and moisture. In addition, whey proteins possess natural antimicrobial qualities that provide a longer shelf-life. “Thanks to the combination of different materials this kind of packaging achieves especially excellent barrier characteristics“, says Florian Wild from the IVV (Fraunhofer Institute for Process Engineering and Packaging) in our interview. It should also be sustainable, since CO2 emission is less than with conventional packaging during the manufacturing process.

The packaging of the future

Does an increase in production of bioplastics make sense or to put it the other way around: can one problem be solved by creating one in another area? Monocultures and deforestation of rainforests in the Amazon could be some of the impacts of a drastically increased demand in bioplastics. Innovative product developments like whey offer a solution – decrease in packaging thickness or new packaging machines are another.
At this point in time we experience an increased demand for transparent food packaging all over Europe. This trend shows in meat trays as well as in packaging for convenience foods. Several food manufacturers introduce semitransparent packaging, in which packaged food remains visible for the consumer, but at the same time sets itself apart from other products in the grocery store‘s freezer. Paired with increasing environmental consciousness, this could be a chance for manufacturers of PLA foil to get into mass production.
Along with the right dose of process and product innovation, in the future gains should also be able to be generated, especially given sustainability aspects.

Ingrid Spicker, InterMopro.de