Plastic Engineering Associates Licensing (PEAL, Boca Raton, Florida / USA; www.turboscrews.com) has granted the first European licence for its “Turbo-Screws” technology foam feed screws for the production of PLA foam sheet and food containers. The US company did not name the licensee but said it was a major player in the European food packaging industry.

“Our new customer told us they were unhappy with the quality of the PLA foam food packaging trays currently being made in Europe,” said Bill Fogarty, vice president of PEAL. “They saw an opportunity to introduce much higher quality PLA foam food containers.” The patented Turbo-Screws technology is used mainly for the production of PS, PE, PP and PLA foams.

Foamed PLA is most commonly used for packaging trays for meat and fish. Manufacturers of packaging trays include Coopbox (Regiio Emilia / Italy; www.coopbox.com), which has been marketing the "Naturalbox" brand since 2005, and Cryovac, which belongs to Sealed Air (Saddle Brook, New Jersey / USA; www.sealed.air.com) and markets its products as “NatureTray”. Both companies use PLA produced by NatureWorks (Minnetonka, Minnesota / USA; www.natureworksllc.com). Sirap Gema (Verolanuova / Italy; www.sirapgema.com) produces “Ekofoam” trays for the British supermarket chain Sainsbury from “Mater-bi” polymers supplied by Novamont (Novara / Italy; www.novamont.com).