Aimplas Challenge Forum 2025: Industry meets academia to tackle food pack challenges

Representatives from the plastics industry, technology development, and academia came together for an event hosted by the Spanish plastics technology center Aimplas, to address the main technological, environmental, and market challenges facing the plastics sector.  

Enhancing food safety through packaging was a main theme discussed at the event.

The Aimplas Challenge Forum 2025, held under the theme “From Science to Market,” took place over two days. High-level presentations were delivered on June 19, while June 20 was dedicated to B2B meetings, where companies presented their own challenges and explored potential collaborative solutions.

José Antonio Costa, director at Aimplas, says: “With this forum, we aim to highlight that collaboration between science, industry, and technology, supported by public administration, is key to addressing the major challenges of plastics across different sectors.”

José Antonio Costa, director at Aimplas (Image credit: Aimplas).“The Aimplas Challenge Forum becomes a strategic meeting point where companies, universities, and technology centers can connect real-world challenges with concrete solutions to drive competitiveness and sustainable growth from a responsible and transformative perspective.”

Aimplas highlighted key challenges in food packaging, particularly in relation to current practices and food preservation strategies, presented by Theofania Tsironi, a chemical engineer at the Agricultural University of Athens, Greece.

“Developments in more sustainable packaging, with lower environmental impact and high recyclability, can help increase shelf life and reduce food waste. Active, intelligent, and high-performance packaging are critical areas,” an Aimplas spokesperson tells Packaging Insights.

Eco-design solutions for food packaging

During her presentation, Tsironi outlined current practices and challenges in food preservation through packaging. She emphasized the importance of selecting appropriate raw materials, ensuring food safety, and developing smart and active packaging to reduce food waste.

To scale reusable packaging for food products, Tsironi stresses the importance of eco-design and validation. “Eco-design can include packaging redesign and the optimization of formulations.”

She also highlights the role of integrated traceability systems in achieving closed-loop systems.

Recycling food packaging is another major challenge, according to the expert. Eco-design plays a key role here as well, particularly when monomaterial structures are used. Decontamination techniques are necessary when incorporating recycled materials into food-contact packaging.

Tsironi also recommends implementing sustainable materials, such as biopolymers, to ensure environmentally responsible food packaging. She advocated for compostable options like PLA and PHA, as well as plastic-free natural polymers.

Theofania Tsironi, a chemical engineer at the Agricultural University of Athens (Image credit:Agricultural University of Athens).From waste to packaging

Agri-food waste can also serve as a potential source of raw materials or active additives for the food packaging industry, Tsironi says.

Similarly, Pietro Picuno, professor of agriculture at the University of Basilicata, Italy, presented the Tango-Circular project, which promotes training for farmers to valorize post-consumer agricultural plastics. He emphasized, “The active participation of the agricultural sector is key to effectively applying the concept of a circular economy.”

Meanwhile, Louison Poudelet, head of R&D in 3D Printing at CIM UPC, a 3D product design company, discussed new solutions that additive manufacturing offers to the plastics industry.

He noted recent advances in functionalized 3D printing, including the development of new materials, multi-material systems, color integration, and customized properties. Poudelet emphasized the potential of additive manufacturing in health and energy applications.

Tsironi also highlighted the role of smart packaging, including active and intelligent solutions for food products.

Joan Ramón Morante, director at the Catalonia Institute for Energy Research, spotlighted decarbonization opportunities in the plastics sector. “Carbon stored in products is not waste,” he notes.

He points to the importance of technologies such as direct CO2 capture, the use of biogenic sources, and circular carbon from recycled materials to extend the lifespan of manufactured resources.