EU-gefinancierd onderzoek leidt tot slimmere verpakking voedsel (en)

Food manufacturers use plastic film for packaging cheese, meat and other foodstuffs to protect them from the oxygen which causes them to become rancid. However, the plastic film lets in enough oxygen to diminish the protective properties of the packaging. Now, researchers under the European Union (EU)-funded WHEYLAYER project have found an alternative. They showed that whey, obtained from the production of cheese, can increase the protective properties of packaging and in addition, the food packaging becomes more biodegradable.

Whey is a liquid by-product of cheese production. "Whey contains proteins that have interesting properties for packaging, but that until now have not been tried," says Elodie Bugnicourt, technical manager at IRIS, a research institute in Barcelona, Spain. Her institute took part in the WHEYLAYER research project that developed this novel food-packaging technique. The resulting packaging combines conventional materials with materials derived from whey and offers better protection for food products sensitive to oxygen and humidity.

Whey contains about 6.5 grams of protein per liter. More than 45 million tonnes of whey are produced in Europe, of which 45 percent is discarded. What makes whey such an interesting material is that, when dried, the proteins form a thick mesh that is impermeable to oxygen and water. "Proteins are very long molecules and during the drying process they stick together and form a structure, called polymer, and like in synthetic plastics they become a good barrier to oxygen," says Bugnicourt. She adds that they have patented the technique. For packaging applications, the whey product is placed between two layers of conventional plastic, thus better protecting the food against oxygen and water.

Another important factor is that the plastic based on whey is easily recyclable because the whey product can be "washed" off the plastic layers by treating it with special proteins that promote its decomposition. For the European packaging industry, this is important because they have to comply with waste legislation. "Many packaging companies are trying to turn to greener solutions, which makes this product attractive," says Bugnicourt. Also, the reuse of an existing waste product makes the carbon footprint much lower. "It is a better use of resources; plastic made from whey will provide more added-value than current uses of whey, in particular for animal food," she adds.

The WHEYLAYER project team included 14 industrial and academic partners from Spain, Hungary, Slovenia, Italy, Germany and Ireland, and was coordinated by PIMEC, the SME association of Catalonia that represents over a 100,000 Spanish companies.

The project ran from November 2008 to October 2011 and received an EU grant of €2.8 million. "We have finished the research and development, and now we have to get the technology successfully onto the market", says Bugnicourt. "There is an early-stage business strategy, and it addresses plans for different sectors and different applications" she explains. However, she expects that some of the "soft" packaging products could reach the market in a year. Bugnicourt expects that this technology will make food packaging greener and that it will be implemented on an industrial scale within the next few years and bring added-value to the European packaging industry.

Project details

Participants: Spain(Coordinator),Germany,Italy, Ireland, Hungary,Slovenia

FP7 Proj. N° 218340

Total costs: € 3 328 381

EU contribution: € 2 529 732

Duration: November 2008 - October 2011