University of Milan

Sustainable development of materials and packaging for fresh products and convenience foodLuciano Piergiovanni

Food processing and Packaging Innovation for Sustainable DevelopmentMumbai, February 11th 2014

University of Milan

The Department of Food,Environmental and Nutritional Sciences - DeFENS

(formerly DiSTAM, Dept. of Food Science & Microbiology)

An Operative Unit exclusively devoted to food packaging (the Packlab) has been established in our University since 1985.

Packlab is the only unit in the University of Milan engaged in research, teaching and testing in the Food Packaging field

http://users.unimi.it/packlab/default.htm

FOOD CONTACT COMPLIANCE

INNOVATIVE BIOBASED

MATERIALS

ACTIVE PACKAGING SYSTEMS

SHELF LIFE TESTING & MODELLING

Sealable bio-coatings

Barrier bio-coatings

Nano-Cellulose applications

NIAS (non intentionally added substances) Antimicrobial proteins

controlled release from paper sheets

Incorporation and diffusion ofnatural volatile antimicrobialsfrom bio-coating

Modelling of moisture diffusion across the packaging material

Essential oil of carvacrol Cyclodextrin

Studies of release of carvacrol frombiocoating at different RH

A very thin bio-coating can improvethe oxygen barrierproperty of a plastic film.

SEM image shows apolypropylene coated filmsafter rupture of sealed strips

Cellulose properties including hydrophilicity, biocompatibility, biodegradability, chemical stability, reactive hydroxyl groups and the ability to form

superstructures.

Low -moisture and dried foods

Meat & Processed MeatOptimization of

active packaging solutions

BeveragesEffects of light exposure and

protection efficacy of packaging

The figure shows the activity of paper sheets against food spoilage microorganisms.

The TOC of this talk:

• Fresh Products & Convenience Foods• Packaging Sustainability & Bio-based materials • Research on Sustainable solutions at Packlab:

Hybrid coatings for high oxygen barrier at high relative humidityMultifunctional Nanocellulose coating on plastic filmsEncapsulation of natural antimicrobials & antioxidants for aBio-based Active Packaging device

• Conclusions

Sustainable development of material and packaging

for fresh products and convenience food

Fresh Products

• Fresh food products have few traditional trade barriers in high income markets. • They represent an important opportunity for less developed country exporters.

HOWEVER• Fresh food products may be subject to important food safety risks and, for this, potential

trade barriers arising from sanitary regulation. • Fresh products might have important Shelf Life limitations due to their high moisture content

and living tissues.

Why a focus on «Fresh Products» ?

THEREFORE• The packaging choices (packaging materials and technologies) can be fundamental in shelf

life extension and in safety assurance. • Packaging of retailed fresh products is not an option but a major requirement.

- Unnevehr, L.J., Food safety issues and fresh food product exports from LDCs. Agricultural Economics, 2000. 23(3): p. 231-240.- Gustafsson, K., Retailing Logistics and Fresh Food Packaging: Managing Change in the Supply Chain. 2006: Kogan Page Publishers.

Convenience Foods

• They are very different products which may be defined as foods which do not require any elaborate processing procedures on the part of consumer before it is good enough for consumption

•The attention about convenience food reflects the changes of the time-space relations of everyday life in contemporary society .

• Convenience orientation was found to be negatively related to cooking enjoyment and positively related to role overload.

Why a focus on «Convenience foods» ?

MOREOVER•The packaging choices (packaging materials and technologies) can be fundamental in shelf life extension, in safety assurance and, mostly, for providing convenience. •Packaging of convenience foods products is not an option but a major requirement.

- Candel, M.J.J.M., Consumers' convenience orientation towards meal preparation: conceptualization and measurement. Appetite, 2001. 36(1): p. 15-28.

- Warde, A., Convenience food: space and timing. British Food Journal, 1999. 101(7): p. 518 - 527.

According to the service level provided, we can defineconvenience foods (or ready meals) as:

• Ready to Eat (RTE)

• Ready to Heat (RTH)

• Ready to Cook (RTC)

Convenience Foods a heterogeneous class of products

• Ready to Heat (RTH)

• Ready to Cook (RTC)

RTH and RTC products are also named Ready to Use (RTU) if they can be heated, cooked and consumedinside their original package

Convenience Foods a heterogeneous class of products

According to the place where the convenience foodsare consumed, we can also distinguish:

• Ready to Eat (RTE)

• Ready to Serve (RTS)

Convenience Foods a heterogeneous class of products

According to their Shelf Life, convenience foods (or ready meals) are also defined as:

• Shelf Stable convenience foods (RTE, RTS, RTH, RTC)

• Refrigerated convenience foods (RTE, RTS, RTH, RTC)

• Frozen convenience foods (RTH, RTC)

Convenience Foods a heterogeneous class of products

Convenience Foods a heterogeneous class of products

• A unique collective name(Convenience Foods/Ready meals) • A unique major purpose: to provide convenience to the final consumers

Many different packages, because several and distinct performance are required for products quite

different

Frequently, very special, high performing, complexpackages are needed and proposed…

Are they sustainable ??

According to “Sustainable Packaging Coalition” focus goes on renewable/recycled energy/material

GreenBlue is a nonprofit institute that stimulates the creative redesign of industry by focusing the expertise ofprofessional communities to create practical solutions, resources, and opportunities for implementing sustainability

SPC is GREENBLUE Project http://www.sustainablepackaging.org/

Sustainable Packaging

What “sustainable packaging” really is and how sustainability can be evaluated is still widely discussed and at various levels, and a global

agreement has not yet been reached.

A general and widely accepted assumption refers to four main attributes of sustainable packaging: they must be Effective, Efficient, Clean and Cyclic

Effective: the packaging system adds real value to society by effectively containing and protecting products IT’S USEFUL !

Efficient: the packaging system is designed to use materials and energy as efficiently as possible throughout the product life cycle. DON’T WASTE !

Cyclic: Packaging materials used in the system are cycled continuously, minimizing material degradation DON’T LITTER !

Clean: packaging components used in the system do not pose any risks to humans or ecosystems. DON’T CONTAMINATE !

Sustainable Packaging

Sustainable Packagingfacts and figures

Nothing new, actually. Those are almost standard requirements for modern packaging. Our environment for sure, is not at risk for Packaging

GASOLINE & JET FUEL : Of all the crude oil refined for use, almost 57% becomesFUELS

DIESEL FUEL AND HOME HEATING: Another 20% becomes distillate, two-thirds of which is diesel fuel and one-third home heating oil.

BOILER OIL: Boiler oil, or residual fuel oil, which makes up 7% of crude oilconsumption, is used to produce electricity.

ASPHALT AND OTHER NON-ENERGY FEEDSTOCKS: account for 13% of crude oilconsumption.

PETROCHEMICAL FEEDSTOCKS: products of the refining process, make up the remaining 3% of all crude oil consumption for plastics and chemicals

Crude oil consumption

Sustainable Packaging

Our environment for sure, is not at risk for Packaging

Sustainable Packagingfacts and figures

Sustainable Packaging

Our environment for sure, is not at risk for Packaging

95%

5%

BREAD

FOOD

PACKAGING

99%

1%CHEESE

99%

1%

BEEF

FOOD

PACKAGING

Definitely the GWP is the most severe impact index for packaging materials

Sustainable Packagingfacts and figures

Resources waste

Underpackaging(product waste)

Overpackaging(material waste)

Packaging resourcesL. Stramare, COREPLA

Lightweighting

Sustainable Packaging Overpackaging

Appropriate packaging saves more waste than it creates. If, due to being badly packed, the contents are spoiled, ten times more waste occurs than that generated by the production of appropriate packagingKooijman, J. 1996. Environmental Impact of Packaging Performance in the Food Supply System, Journal of Waste Management and Resource Recovery, Vol. 3, Nr. 2,

Sustainable Packaging

“Appropriate packaging” … might mean a correct balance between environmental expectations and high protective performance

A sustainable bio-economy needs to overcome today’s dependency on fossil fuels and to bring about a shift towards

processes and products based on natural resources.

M. Carus, L. Scholz Report on Bio-based Plastics and Composites ISSN 1867-1217, Edition 7, April 2010

Within the energy supply sector, the change will be solar and wind power, within the materials sector, very likely, it

will be Bio-based Materials (BBMs) and Composites.

The combination of novel bio-based materialswith conventional flexible packaging can be also a good way to accelerate the movementtowards a sustainable bio-economy, in orderto…. “not throw out the baby with the bath

water”…

That’s why we are focusing mainly on “coating technology”

The Research on BBMs at Packlab

L. Piergiovanni, F. Li, S. Farris. 2013. Coatings of Bio-based materials on flexible food packaging: opportunities for problem solving and innovations. In IJEB Special Issue on New Developments in Biotechnology, Guest Editors- RS Singh, Ashok Pandey, CG Dussap & L Piergiovanni, Indian Journal of Experimental Biology, 51(11), 867-1048 (2013) ISSN: 0019-5189 New Delhi

Coatings are thin layers of functional materialdeposited on a substrate, mainly as liquid solutions

From tenths of nm to few µm, generally much thinner than the substrate beneath

S. Farris, L. Piergiovanni . 2012 Advances in coating technologies for food and beverage packaging materials. In: Emerging Food Packaging Technologies (2012),K. Yam and D.S. Lee (Eds.). Woodhead Publishing Ltd, Oxford, UK. pp. 274

The Research on BBMs at Packlab

Coatings applications

The Research on BBMs at Packlab

Laboratory scale

Pilot scale

Industrial level

Self-assembled Pullulan/Silica hybridCoatings as Oxygen Barrier at high RH

The Research on BBMs at Packlab

+ =

High chain flexibilityLow viscosity at high concentation

Film-forming propertiesHighly transparentRich in hydroxyl groupsSimilar to PVOHHigh moisture sensitivityHigh price (~ 20 €/kg)

Pullulan

Materials

Exopolysaccharide produced aerobicallyby a yeast-like fungus A. pullulans.

Tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS)Widely used in the sol-gel processes as a precursor of bothorthosilic acid [Si(OH)4] and silicon dioxide (SiO2).

Glass-like

features

Materials

RationaleCombining the features of the individual phases (i.e. organicand inorganic) can be useful to obtain a hybrid network for the production of coatings with high oxygen barrier properties evenat high relative humidity values

Pullulan

SiOx

+ Hybrid network+

* “O/I” is Organic/Inorganic Ratio; “I” refers to the silanol form, Si(OH)4, calculated by the initial TEOS content and assuming the

completion of the hydrolysis reaction;

Coating formulations tested

Procedures

Results by OTR measures

Multi-functionalCoating of Cellulose Nanocrystals for Flexible Packaging Applications

The Research on BBMs at Packlab

Cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs)Materials

The controlled hydrolysis of cellulosic sources (cotton, wood, vegetal fibers, bacterial cellulose, …..) permit to obtain Cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) which are special nano-particles with special performance.

We used 4-8% CNCs dispersion at pH ~7, to coat various plastic films substrates

Poly(ethylene terephthalate (PET, 12μm), orientedpolypropylene (OPP, 20μm), oriented polyamide(OPA, 12μm), and cellophane (CELL,12m).

Materials

According to ASTM standard the corona-treated sides of the 4 different plastic films were coated by an automatic film applicator at a constant speed

RationaleTo produce a multi-functional coating, by means of adispersion of CNCs as coating material, on PET, OPP, OPA andcellophane films, in order to enhance the coefficient offriction, anti-fog, optical, oxygen barrier and water vaporbarrier properties of the substrates films

OTR

WVTR

Procedures

Both practical or empirical testsand scientific investigations werecarried out in order to understandthe real feasibility of such bio-based coatings

GELBO FLEX testing machine

The CNCs network onto the 4 films

Procedures/Results

Both practical or empiricaltests and scientificinvestigations were carriedout in order to understandthe real feasibility of suchbio-based coatings

ResultsMulti-functional Coating of Cellulose Nanocrystalsfor Flexible Packaging Applications

T% Haze OTR WVTR Antifog COF

PET

OPP

OPA

Cell

Encapsulation of natural antimicrobial & antioxidants for a Bio-based Active Packaging device

The Research on BBMs at Packlab

To set up an active packaging device, for fresh foods, triggered by product’s moisture and using antioxidant and antimicrobial essential oils (Perilla, propolis, limonene) encapsulated in a

Bio-based material

Rationale

Increase of the shelf life of fresh products by active protection against microbial degradation

Release of volatile compounds during production and storage

The release is mainly governed by concentration-dependent passive diffusion

To have, in a single step, the formation of both the inclusion complex (β-cyclodextrine) and the active device (the releasing membrane)

by Electrospinning of Pullulan nanofibers

E. Mascheroni, C. Feunmajor, S. Cosio, G. DiSilvestro, L. Piergiovanni, S. Mannino, A. Schiraldi. Encapsulation of volatiles in nanofibrous polysaccaryde membranes for humidity-triggered release. Carbohydrate Polymers. 2013:

Rationale

Release under specific conditions • Time• Temp.• Relative

humidity

• Morphology• Aroma retentive

capacity• Thermal

properties

Procedures

Electrospinning and Nanofibers

Nanofibers (diameter ≤ 100 nm)

Morphology of the encapsulation membranes

optimal parameters for obtaining pure pullulan nanofibers. 20 wt% pullulan solution, 0.5 mL/h flow rate, 15kV applied voltage and 12 cm tip-to-collector distance.

O

β-cyclodextrin molecules carrying bioactive aroma (volatile) compound

ConclusionsBio-based materials, derived from renewable sources

largely available in underdeveloped countries, can contribute significantly to achieve innovative and high performing coatings which might be adequate

for high demanding products, such as fresh and convenience foods.

In particular, the combination of novel bio-based materials with conventional packaging materials can be a good way to accelerate the movement towards a

sustainable economy, mantaining appropriate packaging performance.

The PACKLAB

Thanks for your attention !