Objective
The world market for wine in a Bag-in-Box (a flexible plastic bag filled with wine and put into a cardboard box) is about 170 million units per year, of which 24% is produced in Europe. Although the European market for Bag-in-Box (BIB) is growing at an estimated 10 % per year, the potential for additional growth is enormous if we consider that currently only about 1 % of total European wine consumption is in BIB. This convenient package could expand even more rapidly but there are many problems remaining including relatively high package costs, inadequate shelf-life for sensitive white wines, an off-flavour sometimes attributed to bag material, too much SO2 relative to bottled wine and an unacceptably high rate of leaking bags. This "Eurobib" project, grouping together BIB film and machine suppliers, wine fillers and retailers, aims to lower BIB bag costs by at least 15% and to improve quality (measured by increased shelf-life and decrease in leakers) by at least 50%. To achieve these goals, some of the best polymer, machine and wine experts in Europe will assist in the development of new : 1) film technology After specifying desired functional attributes, the project will develop and test a wide range of potential films, including several material innovations not currently used for wine BIBs (such as films with nanoscale ceramic powders, SiOx and AlOx coatings, metallocene catalysed polyolefins as well as several other new polymer blending and orientation technologies). 2) machine technology To date, no manufacturer has ever succeded in making an integrated machine or machine cluster that will make bags (performing the welding and cutting operations) and fill the bags with wine on the same site. This project proposes an innovative "Seal and Fill" bag making and wine filling machine that has no counterpart in the market. The research undertaken fits within the scope of area 1.1 "incorporation of new technologies into production system" in the Brite-EuRam programme.
Fields of science
Call for proposal
Data not availableFunding Scheme
CRS - Cooperative research contractsCoordinator
57370 Schalbach
France