International Packaging Project Aims to Extend Food Shelf-Life

Food safety is the priority of the project and the research organisation said the packaging material would guarantee the safety and freshness of the product during its lifecycle "from farm to fork".

30/04/08 TTZ Bremerhaven is to develop a recyclable antimicrobial polymer-based packaging material, which it claims will improve the shelf-life of fresh fish, chicken and vegetables.

The German food technology and bio research organisation will work on the three-year Natural Antimicrobials for Innovative and Safe Packaging (Nafispack) project with 17 partners from Scandinavia, Denmark, Spain, Italy and Germany, co-ordinated by the Spanish Packaging Transport and Logistics Centre.

The partners include academics, as well as SMEs and large organisations such as Danisco, the Danish supplier of food ingredients.

The project has funding of EUR3.95m (£3.1m).

TTZ Bremerhaven said the carrier substance for the antimicrobial agents would be a type of polymer because it had "active structures which stimulate the absorption and selective release of antimicrobial substances".

Food safety is the priority of the project and the research organisation said the packaging material would guarantee the safety and freshness of the product during its lifecycle "from farm to fork".

The antimicrobial packaging material will be combined with quality indicators that react to the metabolism of the fresh produce.

This would enable any loss of quality to be detected at an early stage, the organisation added.

Improvements to make the packaging easier to open will also be considered.