The food industry is under high pressure from both consumer demand and regulatory agencies with regard to the increasing awareness for food waste and food safety. More and more consumers are becoming acutely attentive to factors influencing the reduction of customers suffering from food contamination and regulations which promote the efficient use of resources and reduce food waste. In that sense, packaging protects products against deteriorative effects.
In particular, for poultry products, packaging has improved their safety and quality and the most widely used packaging system for that purpose is MAP (Modified Atmosphere Packaging). Although, this system is commonly used, there is still some technical and economic drawbacks to be overcome related to poultry’s shelf life and packaging protection improvement, cost and food waste reduction.
Our company, SCIENCEPACK, with this aim, has developed an innovative packaging that give a solution to that MAP limitations. In particular, SCIENCEPACK has developed FRESHRAP technology, a double bottom tray with an active coating that offers an effective alternative to the conventional MAP systems. The key of this innovation is that, thanks to its specific design, CO2 is generated continuously into the packaging. The gas is generated with the reaction of the fresh chicken’s exudate with the active coating, without injecting any gas and improving the quality of packaged (30% CO2 is reached yet in the first 24 hours). In addition, this system avoids the use of absorbers pads that promote bacterial growth, discoloration, acidification, and moisture lost contributing to comply with the European authorities.
For this reason, FRESHRAP represents a great market opportunity to extend this technology to the poultry sector. The poultry meat is one of the fastest growing meat sectors in terms of production and consumption. In 2015, the global poultry meat production reached 112 million tonnes and it is estimated to be worth over 128 million tonnes in 2022 , growing at a rate of 2% each year from 2015. According to FAO, there are over 1,000 poultry producers worldwide where the main producers are UK, Germany and Spain following France and Italy.
The main objective of the action is to develop a feasibility study on the potential introduction of a CO2 emitter packaging for poultry sector, including a technical feasibility study, market analysis, scaling-up features, business model and a financial plan.
