The huge volumes of food waste have become a global problem. According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), a staggering 1.3 billion tonnes of food is annually wasted globally. Each year, food that is produced but not eaten guzzles up a volume of water equivalent to the annual flow of Russia's Volga River and is responsible for adding 3.3 billion tonnes of greenhouse gases to the planet's atmosphere. 35% of this waste is avoidable as it is a result of products not being consumed in the prescribed life time. At present, quite conservative product expiry dates set by the food manufacturers leads to high quantities of avoidable food wastes and the negative impacts thereof. This is due to two main reasons: (i) technical limitations for determining shelf-life, as tests carried out are destructive, only a small sample can be used, which might not accurately represent the whole batch; (ii) as a precaution against potentially disastrous negative publicity that would result from clients consuming food that has gone bad. This situation results in food showing a shorter shelf-life than it actually has, being disposed of prematurely, contributing to huge amounts of food processed and channelled through food chains only to be thrown away.
Having identified an attractive business opportunity, and having developed a promising technological solution (PTC application submitted), the company CHIMIGRAF proposes the FreshInk project, which aims at assessing the business opportunity of a novel commercial colour-code label indicator method to monitor and show the freshness and deterioration of packed chicken breasts. The method builds on food labelling using an already validated freshness indicator which changes colour depending on the food’s freshness status. This label is printed with a pioneering ink formulation which provides a distinguishable and gradual indicator colour change according to chicken freshness loss. The solution will deliver a reliable means for consumers and retailers to get accurate, continuous information about the status of the fresh chicken meat they purchase and manage. This is expected to bring about an actual 25% reduction of packed chicken breasts waste, also contributing to reduce wastage of various non-renewable resources.
FreshInk’s concept represents a huge opportunity for CHIMIGRAF to develop an innovative solution to increase the shelf life, the quality, and the safety of fresh, perishable, chicken meat products. The concept’s principle has also the potential to be applied in other white fresh meat products, whose spoilage processes are similar to the spoilage process of chicken meat.
While the proposer CHIMIGRAF is confident that the innovation efforts will yield the desired outcomes and lead to a successful commercialisation, the objective of submitting the projecto to a SME-1 action was to reduce risks by undertaking a Feasibility Study. The positive results achieved at phase 1 permit CHIMIGRAF to further carry out the next step of the project, confirm the potential and scope of application of the new technology, to confirm their economic viability, to perform the necessary production line adaptations and industrial up scaling, and finally to demonstrate and prepare for commercialisation of the colour-code freshness indicator label with a view towards the commercialisation of the colour-code ink as a key component of the solution.
