Funding (ICMUB): 133 900 €
Duration: 2025 – 48 months
Scientific leader ICMUB: Pierre LE-GENDRE
Summary
The regulatory reduction in single-use plastics is leading to a rapid transition from conventional multilayer barrier food packaging to new recyclable materials. These include hybrid materials (plastic/paper complexes) and functionalized papers, monomaterial conventional films as well as bio-sourced compostable plastics. The need to better understand the potential and limitations of these new materials to make rational choices while managing the associated risks is shared by all stakeholders in the supply chain (producers, packers/users, recyclers). This is even more important as these barrier materials are used to package perishable foods, the chemical and microbiological safety of which must be absolutely guaranteed. Major research efforts need to be devoted to these new packaging materials to generate fundamental knowledge about their safety for food contact, their stability with respect to processes, their compatibility with the microbiological shelf life of packaged foods, and their suitability for recycling treatments. The aim of this integrative project is to acquire the knowledge base to develop a multi-criteria decision-making methodology for the design of safe food packaging. As illustrated in the diagram below, it is divided into 6 work packages (WPs). Firstly, it involves evaluating innovations by material functionalization, studying not only technical aspects but also consumer risk perception. Furthermore, the nature of emerging materials requires the development of new methodologies for assessing chemical safety and ensuring their suitability for food contact. Similarly, the microbiological shelf life of food products packaged under modified atmosphere must be reassessed by integrating the new characteristics of the packaging and their impact on the microbiota of the packaged food, in order to develop prediction models describing the unit system [packaging – food – gas mixture – microbial species] to assess microbiological health risks. Finally, an assessment of material recyclability is proposed to consider different recycling technologies, considering chemical safety, environmental impact, and circularity. All of this knowledge will ultimately be integrated to develop a multi-criteria evaluation tool to assess the impacts of new packaging usage practices on food safety, the environment, and economic profitability. This tool can then be made available to the industry for the design of safe, functional, and environmentally friendly packaging.
Total funding: 2,9 M€
Partners:
- Thomas KARBOVIAK Institut Agro Dijon, UMR PAM (coordinator)
- Industrial partners
- INRAE, UBE, CNAM, CNRS, UBFC
- Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 Université Bretagne Occidentale.