Objective The food sector (including beverage industry) accounts for approximately two thirds of global packaging and about 50% of these packages are made of plastics. Plastic food packaging materials currently in use are generally non-biodegradable causing ecological imbalance and aesthetic deterioration of nature. At the same time being a petro-chemical based product, plastics rely on a depleting and increasingly costly natural resource with relatively low LCA performance (high CO2 footprint).Food packaging – which is predominantly produced by SMEs - is crucial as physical and barrier protection keeping foodstuffs clean, fresh, and safe for consumers while increasing shelf life. Bio-based plastics offer a highly promising alternative and new biological materials are emerging as potential feedstock, such as chitin waste material from the fishing industry, mostly used in cosmetics applications due to their inherent bacteriostatic properties. Chitin waste exceeds 250 billion tons/year, and is considered hazardous due to its high perishability and polluting effect, both on land and sea. So re-use and up cycling to higher value applications would establish an important step forwards towards resource efficiency, providing a relevant innovation for the SME packaging industry that is under pressure to reduce cost and respond to environmental concerns. Recent research results at the University of Prague, leveraging on an SME owned world-wide patent (MAVI) for the production of chitin Nano fibrils, show interesting additional application opportunities of chitin as a bio-based polymer. The n-CHITOPACK project will leverage on the inherent superior properties of these chitin nano-fibrils for the development of new food packaging materials that are bacteriostatic, 100% bio-degradable and can be used by European packaging SMEs, contributing to increase their competitiveness in the market and to solving environmental challenges. Fields of science agricultural sciencesagriculture, forestry, and fisheriesfisheriesnatural scienceschemical sciencespolymer sciencesengineering and technologyother engineering and technologiesfood technologyfood packaging Programme(s) FP7-SME - Specific Programme "Capacities": Research for the benefit of SMEs Topic(s) SME-2012-1 - Research for SMEs Call for proposal FP7-SME-2012 See other projects for this call Funding Scheme BSG-SME - Research for SMEs Coordinator MAVI SUD SRL Address Via dell industria 1 04011 Aprilia latina Italy See on map Region Centro (IT) Lazio Latina Activity type Private for-profit entities (excluding Higher or Secondary Education Establishments) Administrative Contact Pierfranceso Morganti (Dr.) Links Contact the organisation Opens in new window Website Opens in new window EU contribution € 366 613,20 Participants (7) Sort alphabetically Sort by EU Contribution Expand all Collapse all AROMA SYSTEM SRL Italy EU contribution € 143 268,95 Address Via del battirame 6 40127 Bologna See on map Activity type Private for-profit entities (excluding Higher or Secondary Education Establishments) Administrative Contact Sergio Vecchietti Links Contact the organisation Opens in new window SC RODAX IMPEX SRL Romania EU contribution € 44 793,50 Address Drumul taberei 7000 Bucharest See on map Activity type Private for-profit entities (excluding Higher or Secondary Education Establishments) Administrative Contact Laurentiu Moldovan (Dr.) Links Contact the organisation Opens in new window Website Opens in new window MICROTEC SRL Italy EU contribution € 156 575,75 Address Via della croce rossa 42 35129 Padova See on map Activity type Private for-profit entities (excluding Higher or Secondary Education Establishments) Administrative Contact Elisabetta Ugel (Dr.) Links Contact the organisation Opens in new window Website Opens in new window BIOZOON GMBH Germany EU contribution € 115 981,50 Address Nansenstr. 8 27572 Bremerhaven See on map Region Bremen Bremen Bremerhaven, Kreisfreie Stadt Activity type Private for-profit entities (excluding Higher or Secondary Education Establishments) Administrative Contact Matthias Kueck (Mr.) Links Contact the organisation Opens in new window Website Opens in new window USTAV MAKROMOLEKULARNI CHEMIE AV CRVVI Czechia EU contribution € 16 480,00 Address Heyrovsky sq 2 162 06 Praha 6 See on map Region Česko Praha Hlavní město Praha Activity type Research Organisations Administrative Contact Jan Kouba (Mr.) Links Contact the organisation Opens in new window Website Opens in new window CONSORZIO INTERUNIVERSITARIO NAZIONALE PER LA SCIENZA E TECNOLOGIA DEI MATERIALI Italy EU contribution € 21 008,00 Address Via giusti 9 50121 Firenze See on map Region Centro (IT) Toscana Firenze Activity type Research Organisations Administrative Contact Andrea Lazzeri (Prof.) Links Contact the organisation Opens in new window Website Opens in new window NOFIMA AS Norway EU contribution € 36 376,00 Address Muninbakken 9-13 9291 Tromso See on map Region Norge Nord-Norge Troms og Finnmark Activity type Research Organisations Administrative Contact Morten Sivertsvik (Dr.) Links Contact the organisation Opens in new window Website Opens in new window
