Nathalie GONTARD
INRA, France
Title: Promoting sustainable food production by developing eco-efficient and tailor made packaging for fresh foods: The EcoBioCAP EU project
Biography
Biography: Nathalie GONTARD
Abstract
The paper aims at explaining at which levels packaging could be a key player for sustainable food consumption by improving food quality and safety preservation, and reducing food wastes management issues. An example of a current European research project, EcoBioCAP, illustrates how it is possible to improve the overall sustainability of food packaging. EcoBioCAP project aims to provide the food industry with customizable, eco-efficient, biodegradable packaging solutions with direct benefits both for the environment and consumers in terms of food quality and safety. This next-generation packaging is developed using advanced composite structures based on constituents (biopolyesters, fibres, proteins, polyphenolic compounds, bioadhesives and high-performance bio-additives) derived from food industry (oil, dairy, cereal and beer) by-products only and by applying innovative processing strategies (blends and multilayers at different scales) to enable customisation of the packaging’s properties to fit the functional, cost, safety and environmental impact requirements of the targeted fresh perishable food (fruit and vegetables, cheese and ready-to-eat meals). The development of a decision support system for use by the whole packaging chain makes the EcoBioCAP technology accessible to all stakeholders.