The GLOPACK food packaging material is based on poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3- hydroxyvalerate), PHBV, a microbial polyester that is fully bio-based (but non-food based) and fully biodegradable in soil and home-compost. The GLOPACK PHBV is produced by mixed microbial cultures from fermentable organic residues (corncob or fruit juice residues) at two pilot plants. Both processes were optimized to achieve a production at TRL 6 at the end of the project. More than 80 kg of raw polymer were produced in total, about 50 kg after extraction. GLOPACK polymer with ~18% HV content was found suitable for production of rigid containers by injection moulding after blending with 20% of polybutylene succinate, but with a too narrow range of processability for further industrial production.
Further tests were performed with commercial PHBV with 3% of HV with lab-scale thermoforming and pilot-scale injection moulding. Over the whole project’s duration, ~ 300 running meters of formulated commercial PHBV were extruded and ~ 150 thermoformed trays were thermoformed. A total of ~ 3000 trays and pots were injected. PHBV material are more easily processable using injection moulding than thermoforming. ~ 280 cups of PHBV containing about 2% of ethyl lauroyl arginate (LAE) as anti-microbial agent were injected for further shelf-life tests. Shelf-life tests, conducted at lab-scale on fresh cheese, beef meat and veggie ready-to-eat food confirmed the suitability of PHBV cups and trays produced to pack food under modified atmosphere. Packaging brittleness must be nevertheless reduced for further industrialisation.
The sensor-RFID tag provides information about the food quality status through detection of internal gas composition changes in the headspace. The RFID system is supported with an Android IOS compatible mobile application to visualise the signal and helps the user to decide whether the product is still consumable or not.
The GLOPACK modelling tools and Decision Support System help stakeholders to make informed and reasoned choices on the food packaging solution (e.g. material, modified atmosphere) that best matches their requirements. The tool encompasses a comprehensive database of packaging materials and their key parameters along with additional qualitative data such as consumer surveys to allow for ranking of packaging materials based on those most likely to be accepted by an average consumer.
Market study have revealed that consumers are ready for GLOPACK innovations. Globally, the more sensitive consumers are to environmental issues, the more they prefer GLOPACK packaging. In case of organic veggie food, consumers appear more concerned by the environmental aspect of the packaging probably because they, in majority, already buy organic products for this reason. Cost is also clearly important: an increase up to 25 cts appears to be acceptable, independently of the type of product (for an original price of food products from 2€ to 6€), this extra-cost is below the price increase expected for such product packed in the new packaging concept. A market strategy could be thus to focus on niche markets of high value-added products (e.g. organic food, cosmetics) that could afford to put on the market more expensive packaging material.
