EU Refucoat project enhances food freshness with bio-based antimicrobial packaging

09 Oct 2020 --- A three-year EU-funded project called Refucoat has developed bio-based active packaging systems for fresh chicken, breadcrumbs and potato chips. The antimicrobial technology has demonstrated shelf life enhancement and microbial contamination prevention capabilities.

One of the “most promising results” for Refucoat is that it has an active coating that contains antimicrobial bacteriophages to attack unwanted bacterial growth, project communication lead Dr. Nina McGrath tells PackagingInsights.

The antimicrobial coatings also significantly reduce Salmonella growth in modified atmosphere packaging (MAP)-packaged chicken breasts. 

Current plastic production relies heavily on raw materials from fossil-based, non-renewable sources. Many food products require complex multilayer plastic packaging that is often difficult or expensive to recycle, the project team notes.

All Refucoat packaging systems are recyclable and/or compostable, making them a “promising sustainable alternative” to current packaging on the market.

Bio-polymer production challenges
Next to its antimicrobial findings, the Refucoat project researched low-quality flour, a food industry by-product that otherwise goes wasted, to produce biopolymers. 

The flour is used as a source material to produce the biodegradable biopolymer polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) via microbial fermentation. In turn, this material is used to create active packaging trays that extend the fresh chicken products’ shelf life.

Click to EnlargeRefucoat’s work on PGA will open up opportunities for research to harness the potential of this material on an industrial scale.Refucoat also developed an efficient process for producing polyglycolic acid (PGA). This scaled up production has the potential to reduce PGA’s production costs, which have been too expensive to replace current fossil-based materials. 

McGrath stresses that although the processability of PGA is “not easy,” it also presents “very good barrier properties, which makes it the perfect bio-based material for barrier packaging.”

Commercialization on the horizon
Each Refucoat packaging system was carefully designed, targeting the main factor that affects the shelf life of each different food, such as moisture, oxygen and microbes. 

The barrier and active coatings are combined with commercial bio-PE, bio-PET and Refucoat PHA and polylactic acid (PLA) to produce high-performance packaging structures for fresh chicken meat, breadcrumbs and crisps.

While this project aims to establish new knowledge and explore the feasibility of new technologies, McGrath emphasizes that consumer acceptance will be a key factor for companies interested in applying these kinds of packaging to their products. 

“Preliminary results from consumer acceptance studies conducted by Refucoat researchers suggest that a price increase is not a barrier to their willingness to purchase products made from bio-based materials,” she notes.

Bio-based projects abound
Refucoat received funding from the EU Horizon 2020 fund, which supports research on transforming the plastics value chain and reducing food and packaging waste and their negative impacts on the environment. 

Two similar yet separate projects in this funding scheme are NanoPack and YPACK. 

“While Refucoat and YPACK are both focused on developing high-performance packaging from renewable bio-based materials, NanoPack has developed a recyclable active packaging based on polyethylene that has been shown to prolong the shelf life of several perishable foods such as bread and fruits,” says McGrath.

NanoPack project developed flexible plastic food film with antioxidants and antimicrobial properties to decelerate food spoilage and YPACK found that integrating zinc oxide and oregano essential oil helps the bio-papers protect against bacterial contamination in food packaging. 

Antimicrobial packaging has demonstrated impressive shelf life-extending capabilities in the fight against global food waste.

Currently, Refucoat is validating each of its new packaging structures and comparing their performance to current metalized, non-bio-based alternatives in industrial products. The project is also carrying out testing to compare shelf life and biodegradability to traditional packaging products currently on the market.

By Anni Schleicher

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