Spanish collaboration converts horticultural waste into biodegradable packaging

04 Jul 2018 --- Plastics technology specialist Aimplas has pioneered the creation of new biodegradable films and nets for horticultural products, food colorants and additives from harvest waste. The BIOVEGE project took horticultural waste from the fields of Almería and successfully converted it into high-value packaging in line with the philosophy of the circular economy.

In Andalusia, around 500,000 tons of fruit and vegetable by-product has no viable use and ends up in landfills.

However, the following packaging solutions have been developed from sugars obtained from watermelon and melon:
• Different types of biodegradable films with a thickness of 23 µm which can be used as shrink film for cucumber packaging and bags for weighing all kinds of agricultural products.
• Biodegradable nets for the packaging of different agricultural products, including garlic and green beans.

Likewise, active substances such as vitamins, antioxidants and food colorants found in tomato and pepper waste have been converted into the following products:
• Single-serving sachets of vinaigrette dressing supplemented with 5 percent of lyophilized tomato and olive oil supplemented with 1 percent of green pepper phenolic extract, obtained from pressurized fluids.
• Ready-to-blend gazpacho made of lyophilized tomato, pepper and cucumber by-products. It is a powdered preparation to cook gazpacho in situ, ready to mix with water and drink. It maintains all the properties of fresh gazpacho, but with an increased shelf life and vitamin C.
• Tomato and pepper-flavored flour enriched with an antioxidant capacity that incorporates lyophilized tomato and pepper by-products in its formulation.
• Natural food colorants from lyophilized red pepper by-products as a replacement for artificial food colorants (cochineal (E-120) and carotenes (E-160a)) without alteration to color, giving aroma and taste to meat and vegan products.

Coordinated by Alhóndiga La Unión, four other companies have taken part in the BIOVEGE project: Ecoplas, Morera y Vallejo Industrial, Torres Morente and Domca. The technical part of the project has been led by AIMPLAS and other research centers have participated: Tecnalia, Cidaf and Las Palmerillas Fundación Cajamar. The project is funded by the Centre for the Development of Industrial Technology (CDTI) through the ERDF Innterconecta 2015 programme.

The commercial popularity of biodegradable packaging is on the rise. Innova Market Insights reports a 40 percent increase in new food and beverage products packaged in bio-based/biodegradable material (CAGR 2013-2017). Meanwhile, a survey found that more than 35 percent of German consumers, 25 percent of UK consumers and more than 25 percent of US consumers consider bio-based and/or biodegradable/compostable packaging important in food and beverage choice (Innova Market Insights, 2015).