Periodic Reporting for period 3 - MYPACK (Best markets for the exploitation of innovative sustainable food packaging solutions)
Berichtszeitraum: 2020-05-01 bis 2021-10-31
MyPack project aims to help sustainable food packaging technologies to reach or expand their market. The project designed a tool for the optimization of packaging technologies, and the selection of their best application markets. Seven case studies were studied during the project. Different aspects were taken into account, including: (i) optimal environmental efficiency considering the respective impacts of food waste and packaging, optimization of end-of-life scenarios (recycling, landfilling, incineration), and the preservation of consumer health (ii) the best acceptability by the consumer, and (iii) the optimization of industrial feasibility. Three categories of packaging have been studied, which have different advantages from the environmental point of view: biodegradable and compostable packaging, packaging made from renewable resources, and elaborated packaging technologies, of high intrinsic environmental impact, but contributing to the minimization of food waste. The investigation of the best compromise between the intrinsic (negative) impacts of packaging and its positive impacts brought by its contribution to the reduction of food waste was a key point of the project. The MyPack consortium was made up of 18 partners from 6 different countries. MyPack started on November 1, 2017 and lasted 48 months. Among the 7 technologies studied, 4 have been brought to a TRL greater than or equal to 8.
Mypack project produced 4 outputs to help sustainable food packaging technologies to reach or expand their market :
- Output 1 - Guidelines and specifications:
The tool is directly available on the mypack website MyPack and is divided into 9 sections adressing all specifications and barriers to the market
- Output 2 - Mypack case studies
Technologies based on bioplastic films contributed to the short term financial return of the project. Recommendations to policy makers underline through a swot analysis how to support this specific market. The barrier technologies of SiOx coated rigid packaging associated and PEF PET multilayer films has a big potential for long term development ; further efforts of R&D to decrease the costs, and target new markets to increase the impacts. Finally a high TRL increase was obtained for the “Blow” breathing packaging technology apploied to fresh vegetable preservation
- Output 3 - Reference food waste shelf life data
Mypack project underlines the differentiation between packaging technologies which are “sustainable” due to intrinsic packaging impacts (recyclable, biobased, biodegradable …) and packaging technologies which are “sustainable” due to packaging efficiency (reduction of food waste). Apart the production of reference data about the relationship between shelf life and food waste, the project team put big efforts on communication : General education, Sensibilization of industry, Recommendation to policy makers
- Output 4 - Consumer adoption data
This output contributed to the good scientific impacts of the project. A “sustainable” packaging is not a clear concept for the consumer, and an adapted communication must be performed by the end users. Consumer education is also needed. To reach a wider audience, the guidelines include a specific section about consumer acceptability.
- Output 1 - Guidelines and specifications:
The tool is directly available on the mypack website MyPack and is divided into 9 sections adressing all specifications and barriers to the market
- Output 2 - Mypack case studies
Technologies based on bioplastic films contributed to the short term financial return of the project. Recommendations to policy makers underline through a swot analysis how to support this specific market. The barrier technologies of SiOx coated rigid packaging associated and PEF PET multilayer films has a big potential for long term development ; further efforts of R&D to decrease the costs, and target new markets to increase the impacts. Finally a high TRL increase was obtained for the “Blow” breathing packaging technology apploied to fresh vegetable preservation
- Output 3 - Reference food waste shelf life data
Mypack project underlines the differentiation between packaging technologies which are “sustainable” due to intrinsic packaging impacts (recyclable, biobased, biodegradable …) and packaging technologies which are “sustainable” due to packaging efficiency (reduction of food waste). Apart the production of reference data about the relationship between shelf life and food waste, the project team put big efforts on communication : General education, Sensibilization of industry, Recommendation to policy makers
- Output 4 - Consumer adoption data
This output contributed to the good scientific impacts of the project. A “sustainable” packaging is not a clear concept for the consumer, and an adapted communication must be performed by the end users. Consumer education is also needed. To reach a wider audience, the guidelines include a specific section about consumer acceptability.
The project addressed different barriers for the access to the market :
- Concerning intrinsic environmental impact of packaging, the guideline tool proposes as a general approach a systematic check list of topics to consider to limit the impacts. As a specific result efforts have been done to decrease the thickness of bioplastic films while keeping acceptable functional properties for salad preservation.
- Concerning macroeconomic barriers, a general study was conducted on bioplastics, considering this category of sustainable packaging is more concerned with high production cost issues ; for each type of bioplastic the possible strategy for cost reduction is different. More specifically a focus was made on the PEF development through first applications involving low quantities of the material (use as a functional polymer in PET films)
- Concerning technical barriers, the Mypack guideline tool proposes a systematic inventory of topics to consider for the improvement of packaging processability, the improvement of packaging functionality, the compliance with regulatory obligations, and the methodologies to improve packaging food safety. More specifically, efforts were done for the development of a biodegradable water barrier soft packaging combining bioplastics and paper, compatible with biscuit preservation applications. Another barrier technology (SiOx coating) was not successfully optimized to follow sterilized food application, but the change of target application allowed to identify alternative markets for this technology
- Concerning the environmental impact of packaging trough its efficiency to limit food preservation, general studies were done (i) for the demonstration of the (much) lower impact of packaging compared to this of food product (ii) in order to correlate shelf life and food waste data (iii) to propose a systematic approach in the guideline tool to adjust the good balance between packaging efficiency and food waste minimization. More specifically about this topic, the Blow technology studied was demonstrated as “elaborated” (higher intrinsic impacts than common preservation technology) BUTmore sustainable, thanks to a more favorable environmental balance due to a drastic increase of salad shelf life
- Concerning consumer perception, a section is dedicated to the topic in the guideline tool. As a general observation sustainability perception of packaging is highly related to the origin of the material and its end of life (cf good perception of bioplastics), but poorly related to packaging preservation efficiency (food waste is not understood as a factor of increase of environmental impact). The key point is then the education and the communication to the consumer ; testing the effect of communicating Blow Device technology in an implicit and explicit way (combined and separately), sustainability was shown to be more salient when explicit cues were present rather than absent and the combination of implicit and explicit cues which did not lead to any increase in sustainability salience.
Thanks to these general and specific studies realized during the project, the industrial partners providing and using new packaging technologies obtained high progress for new market access. The general and practical knowledge accessible through Mypack guideline tool is more generally accessible to any industrial user. This contributes to the good socio economic impacts of the project, the wider and faster deployment of innovative packaging solutions resulting from greater consumer acceptance, the strengthening of the EU's position in manufacturing, improving competitiveness as well as opportunities for growth, diversification and job creation for the EU food and packaging sector. The special focus of the project about consumer perception and about food waste issues contribute to the strengthening the European food value chain through continued support to product quality, contributing to consumer trust and increased consumption, and supports the transition from a linear to a circular economy
- Concerning intrinsic environmental impact of packaging, the guideline tool proposes as a general approach a systematic check list of topics to consider to limit the impacts. As a specific result efforts have been done to decrease the thickness of bioplastic films while keeping acceptable functional properties for salad preservation.
- Concerning macroeconomic barriers, a general study was conducted on bioplastics, considering this category of sustainable packaging is more concerned with high production cost issues ; for each type of bioplastic the possible strategy for cost reduction is different. More specifically a focus was made on the PEF development through first applications involving low quantities of the material (use as a functional polymer in PET films)
- Concerning technical barriers, the Mypack guideline tool proposes a systematic inventory of topics to consider for the improvement of packaging processability, the improvement of packaging functionality, the compliance with regulatory obligations, and the methodologies to improve packaging food safety. More specifically, efforts were done for the development of a biodegradable water barrier soft packaging combining bioplastics and paper, compatible with biscuit preservation applications. Another barrier technology (SiOx coating) was not successfully optimized to follow sterilized food application, but the change of target application allowed to identify alternative markets for this technology
- Concerning the environmental impact of packaging trough its efficiency to limit food preservation, general studies were done (i) for the demonstration of the (much) lower impact of packaging compared to this of food product (ii) in order to correlate shelf life and food waste data (iii) to propose a systematic approach in the guideline tool to adjust the good balance between packaging efficiency and food waste minimization. More specifically about this topic, the Blow technology studied was demonstrated as “elaborated” (higher intrinsic impacts than common preservation technology) BUTmore sustainable, thanks to a more favorable environmental balance due to a drastic increase of salad shelf life
- Concerning consumer perception, a section is dedicated to the topic in the guideline tool. As a general observation sustainability perception of packaging is highly related to the origin of the material and its end of life (cf good perception of bioplastics), but poorly related to packaging preservation efficiency (food waste is not understood as a factor of increase of environmental impact). The key point is then the education and the communication to the consumer ; testing the effect of communicating Blow Device technology in an implicit and explicit way (combined and separately), sustainability was shown to be more salient when explicit cues were present rather than absent and the combination of implicit and explicit cues which did not lead to any increase in sustainability salience.
Thanks to these general and specific studies realized during the project, the industrial partners providing and using new packaging technologies obtained high progress for new market access. The general and practical knowledge accessible through Mypack guideline tool is more generally accessible to any industrial user. This contributes to the good socio economic impacts of the project, the wider and faster deployment of innovative packaging solutions resulting from greater consumer acceptance, the strengthening of the EU's position in manufacturing, improving competitiveness as well as opportunities for growth, diversification and job creation for the EU food and packaging sector. The special focus of the project about consumer perception and about food waste issues contribute to the strengthening the European food value chain through continued support to product quality, contributing to consumer trust and increased consumption, and supports the transition from a linear to a circular economy