USING BIO-WASTE OF MARINE ORIGIN TO PRODUCE INNOVATIVE BIO-DEGRADABLE FOOD PACKAGING

Abstract

Today a significant source of potential renewable feedstock for polymers is represented by waste material from the fishing industry, exceeding 250 billion tons/years, and is considered hazardous due to its high perishability and polluting effect, both on land and sea.
To improve the recycling of this marine-waste the EU project n-CHITOPACK started to use a sugar-like polymer, the Chitin Nanofibrils (CN), coming from this waste, to produce innovative food packaging processes and products. The n-CHITOPACK consortium involves SME ingredient supplier of CN and patent holder MAVI sud srl (Aprilia, Italy), and complementary SME’s packaging producers: MICROTEC (Padova, Italy) for flexible food packaging, AROMA SYSTEM (Bologna, Italy) for rigid packaging, RODAX IMPEX (Bucharest, Romania) for packaging equipment, and BIOZOON (Bremerhaven, Germany) for marketing analysis and identification of consumer demand. The RTD Performers IMC (Praha, Czech Republic), NOFIMA (Tromos, Norway) and INSTM (Firenze, Italy) ) will perform research on the optimal composition of CN-based packaging, functionalized with other different biologically active polymers in order to meet and characterize its mechanical and chemicalphysical activities together with its hydrophobic and biodegradable requirements for food packaging. The RTD NOFIMA will analize the products selected in order to evaluate the antimicrobial properties, shelf life extension, and food-safety of their materials.