Final Report Summary - SAFEMTECH (Safety in Use and Emerging Technologies in Food Packaging)
The European Packaging industry is a crucial sector in the European economy where innovation through the continuous collaboration with the Academia is necessary to increase its competitiveness. In addition, the assurance of food safety in the whole food supply chain, especially in food packaging, is a concern of the European Union due to its impact on the health and wellbeing of the European citizens. The European food legislation on Food Contact Materials has led to a series of Regulations, Guidelines and Recommendations within the European harmonization process. However, in this frame several materials such as adhesives, which play an important role in food packaging, are not regulated yet, mainly because of the lack of knowledge about them. Other emerging technologies that produce new materials intended to protect the food from the packaging and thus increase the food safety, such as active and intelligent packaging materials, have been also regulated (Directive 2009/450/CE (29th May 2009). However, there are only a few innovative solutions in the EU market. To generate the scientific and technical knowledge the Research Teams from the Academia are necessary, and to produce the new materials and technologies at industrial scale the Industrial companies are required. That is why both sectors are essential to cope with this innovative proposal. The SAFEMTECH proposal aims to develop a research project based on the collaboration of the packaging industry and the Academy with two main objectives:
a) The study of the safety in use of adhesives produced at the company GOGLIO and used in the production of food packaging materials, and b) The development of active and intelligent packaging systems at industrial level. SAFEMTECH has also other objectives which should be emphasized: 1) The transference of knowledge between the partners, which is of great value in this case, as it is compulsory to develop a solution able to be efficient at industrial scale; 2) The mutual collaboration at long term which starts with this project, due to the high amount of knowledge that each partner needs from the other one; 3) The increase of knowledge and training for personnel involved in the project at GOGLIO and at UNIZAR, which will be of special added value for young researchers and PhD students which will participate in this project.
In this project, migration of several components of common adhesives used in flexible multilayer production as well as some non intentionally added substances (NIAS) were found. Different ways to delay or avoid such migration were studied and successfully applied at industrial scale. Set-off problems as well as migration from printing inks were also studied and the use of appropriate lacquer to minimize the set-off was also studied and applied using a wide series of multilayer structures, different printing inks and different lacquers.
The influence of gamma irradiation on the polymers and the likely degradation and the consequent migration of volatile compounds was also studied in depth, not only just after the irradiation, but also at long term, what means 8 months later. Although some degradation compounds were found and released from the irradiated materials, the migration values were in all of them lower than 10 ppb.
A new antioxidant material based on green tea has been developed in this project and Patented. All the requirements for the new active material were fulfilled and the new material, produced at industrial level by GOGLIO, is already in the market.
A new antimicrobial material has been developed and studied in depth and the results obtained are promising.
Several intelligent systems were also explored at laboratory scale and promising results were found.
a) The study of the safety in use of adhesives produced at the company GOGLIO and used in the production of food packaging materials, and b) The development of active and intelligent packaging systems at industrial level. SAFEMTECH has also other objectives which should be emphasized: 1) The transference of knowledge between the partners, which is of great value in this case, as it is compulsory to develop a solution able to be efficient at industrial scale; 2) The mutual collaboration at long term which starts with this project, due to the high amount of knowledge that each partner needs from the other one; 3) The increase of knowledge and training for personnel involved in the project at GOGLIO and at UNIZAR, which will be of special added value for young researchers and PhD students which will participate in this project.
In this project, migration of several components of common adhesives used in flexible multilayer production as well as some non intentionally added substances (NIAS) were found. Different ways to delay or avoid such migration were studied and successfully applied at industrial scale. Set-off problems as well as migration from printing inks were also studied and the use of appropriate lacquer to minimize the set-off was also studied and applied using a wide series of multilayer structures, different printing inks and different lacquers.
The influence of gamma irradiation on the polymers and the likely degradation and the consequent migration of volatile compounds was also studied in depth, not only just after the irradiation, but also at long term, what means 8 months later. Although some degradation compounds were found and released from the irradiated materials, the migration values were in all of them lower than 10 ppb.
A new antioxidant material based on green tea has been developed in this project and Patented. All the requirements for the new active material were fulfilled and the new material, produced at industrial level by GOGLIO, is already in the market.
A new antimicrobial material has been developed and studied in depth and the results obtained are promising.
Several intelligent systems were also explored at laboratory scale and promising results were found.