With the aim of reducing food waste and finding sustainable solutions for plastic packaging, Spanish plastics technology centre Aimplas (Valencia; www.aimplas.net) has announced three new bio-based packaging systems as part of their “Refucoat” project. According to Aimplas, these packaging systems have been designed specifically for fresh chicken meat, cereals and snacks, and have been produced with bacteriophage-based coatings, which reduce the proliferation of salmonella bacteria in chicken breasts in a modified atmosphere.

The biopolymers were produced using low-quality flour (a food industry by-product) as a base to produce polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA), which is biodegradable, and the material was then used to manufacture food trays that extend the shelf life of fresh chicke-meat products. The process also saw the production of polyglycolide (PGA), another biodegradable material said to offer excellent water barrier properties, making it optimal for food packaging. Together, these two bioplastics were used to develop three different recyclable packaging systems. The three-year-long Refucoat project ended in October 2020 after validating the new packaging structures and comparing their performance with metallised packaging for non-bio applications.