Project description
Novel food packaging technology finds new, eco-friendly uses for wheat bran
Wheat bran – a by-product of the milling industry – has a relatively low market value and is mostly used as feed for animals; otherwise, if not treated, it becomes waste. The EU-funded Branbox project, run by the Polish company Biotrem, will put wheat bran to good use by introducing proprietary technology that makes takeaway food containers from this raw material. These water-resistant, disposable containers are biodegrade within 30 days. Two major issues nowadays for such containers are sustainability and environmental impact, both of which are hard to overcome in a single product. Distributors, food service providers, packaging producers and mills – and all consumers – will greatly benefit from this innovative food packaging solution.
Objective
The plastic’s invasion on our planet have become our every day’s life. The amount of plastics is immense and starts to play a significant role on World’s ecosystem. Most of the plastics are the packages. The problem has been addressed by some biodegradable solutions such as bioplastic, paper or even bamboo containers. However, they still need at least half a year to degrade. From the other side, there is also immense amount of wheat bran which is a side product of the milling industry. The only use of that bran is feed for animals, otherwise it becomes waste in a few weeks. Hence, its efficient disposal is problematic, and - in result - bran has very low market value. Biotrem’s mission is to solve both the problems at the same time. We invented the proprietary technology which allows to use the wheat bran to make the containers. In this project we introduce water resistant and edible take-away food containers, which are biodegradable within 30 days - Branboxes. Currently, the major issue for the containers is the water resistance and biodegradability which is a great challenge to achieve at the same time in the single product. Bringing the product to the market at the small scale will not give the desired environmental results. Hence, we will introduce the scaled-up production (by licensing) and commercialization.
The market for such biodegradable packaging is worth at the moment €11B and is quickly growing at the CAGR of 16%, and is going to reach €20B within next decade.
Our end-users (each of us) will benefit from the plastic-free environment. Our customers – distributors, food chains and packaging producers, and mills will benefit from the new business opportunities. Our extensive distribution network will help us to fully exploit opportunities to commercialize the Branbox.
The prototype was already tested by big players on the market, and now we apply for SMEI funding to accelerate full scale commercialisation of the Branbox.
Fields of science
- social scienceseconomics and businessbusiness and managemententrepreneurship
- natural sciencesphysical sciencesastronomyplanetary sciencesplanets
- engineering and technologyenvironmental biotechnologybioremediationcompost
- engineering and technologymaterials engineeringcoating and films
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesecologyecosystems
- agricultural sciencesagriculture, forestry, and fisheriesagriculture
- engineering and technologyother engineering and technologiesfood technologyfood packaging
- engineering and technologyenvironmental engineeringwaste managementwaste treatment processes
- social sciencespolitical sciencesgovernment systems
- social scienceseconomics and businessbusiness and managementcommerce
Keywords
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
SME-2 - SME instrument phase 2Coordinator
00-389 Warszawa
Poland
The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.