SPOTLIGHT magazin - Tomatoes being analysed in the laboratory.

Wageningen Food & Biobased Research, WFBR, contract research, packaging, logistics, food industry, packaging, AI-controlled fermentation

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02.02.2025

Long shelf life and sustainability: Knowledge transfer from research to industry

New technologies emerging from research help the food and packaging industries to combine sustainability, long shelf life and efficiency. Together with its partners, Wageningen Food & Biobased Research develops intelligent packaging, biobased materials and AI-based solutions that are already seeing successful application.

Image: WPO

27.01.2025

Stemming the tide on ocean-bound plastic

The NextWave consortium has diverted over 20,000 metric tons of ocean-bound plastic—equivalent to 2.27 billion single-use water bottles. And SABIC, meanwhile, says Italian food-packaging innovator B!POD is using its OBP-based polypropylene in its latest range of food-preserving vacuum-packed containers.

SAVE FOOD Design und SUSTAINABILITY Design Awards

Image: WPO

09.12.2024

SAVE FOOD and SUSTAINABILITY Design Awards for sustainable packaging solutions

This year's SAVE FOOD Design and SUSTAINABILITY Design Awards were presented at the Shanghai World of Packaging in November 2024. The awards recognise innovative packaging solutions along the value chain with a positive environmental impact. The companies honoured are: United Caps (Malaysia), Koch Pac-Systeme (Germany), UBIS (Spain) and Multivac (China).

Image: WPO

02.12.2024

Think globally, act locally: a conversation with Nerida Kelton, WPO

The biggest challenge for packaging technology is to find a balance between functionality, economic aspects, consumer requirements and environmental criteria. "Inappropriate packaging is one of the main causes of food waste and is responsible for negative environmental impacts", explains Nerida Kelton, World Packaging Organisation (WPO).

Image: Ayla Verschueren/unsplash

02.12.2024

Trends and developments in the pet food market

More and more, dogs and cats are considered as members of the family. The demands of pet owners in terms of nutrition are increasing accordingly. The pet food industry is reacting and promoting healthy products with functional ingredients and new dosage forms. The use of insect proteins could become a trend. Many pet food manufacturers are also switching to more sustainable, recyclable packaging.

Image: Sesotec GmbH

19.11.2024

Foreign object detection and food safety – in search of the blue glove

Sometimes large quantities of edible food are disposed of for safety reasons, even though only a single product may be contaminated. To avoid this, manufacturers rely on detection systems that recognise foreign objects. Systems specialist Sesotec recommends combinations of sieves, magnets, metal detectors and X-ray systems for this purpose, and thus contributes to the reduction of food waste.

Image: Pact Group

06.11.2024

Pact group & partners creating circular solution for pret tray-to-tray recycling

Australia’s meat eaters create a lot of waste with their PET meat trays. But thermoformed PET food packaging is very recyclable, with the right infrastructure in place. So Pact Group is working with Hilton Foods, Woolworths Group and Cleanaway Waste Management to close the loop on this by collecting, sorting and cleaning these PET materials, and remanufacturing them into more food packaging.

Image: iStock

23.10.2024

Sustainable plastics on the rise

Consumers’ growing environmental consciousness leads to added pressure on the packaging industry to develop sustainable solutions. In this context, sustainability is not limited to bio-based or bio-degradable materials. Conventional fossil-based plastics can also be part of sustainable strategies – if they are designed for recyclability or produced using recycled raw materials.

Image: Bühnen GmbH & Co. KG

14.10.2024

The role of adhesives in optimising packaging processes

Adhesives are the invisible backbone of the packaging industry – without them, cardboard, films and other packaging materials could not be held together. Particularly in the food industry, adhesives are crucial for product safety and shelf life. Following the trend towards sustainable packaging, the demand for innovative adhesive solutions like those offered by the Bühnen company is rising.

Image: AIMPLAS

24.09.2024

AIMPLAS Working to Develop Valuable Packaging Applications From Fish-Processing Waste

AIMPLAS, a Valencia, Spain-based research and technology center, is participating in a European project designed to develop an eco-friendly barrier coating for food packaging from fish gelatin as well as cosmetics packaging from waste fishing nets.

Image: Woodly Oy

23.09.2024

Woodly – made of wood, looks like plastic

Wood-based substitute material for plastic offers the food industry new sustainable options. Finnish start-up and SAVE FOOD member Woodly supplies wood cellulose polymers for various packaging solutions and products such as reusable cups. The carbon-neutral material is particularly useful in ensuring that bread is hygienically packaged while staying fresh for a long time and looking appetising.

Stretch film holding tins in place on a pallet

Image: Brangs+Heinrich

17.09.2024

Sustainable packaging film for sleeving, stretching, shrinking and sealing

Plastic film is indispensable in the packaging sector. Used as sealing film, it can seal food trays, it can enclose beverage bottles in the form of sleeves and as stretch film, it lends stability to packaging during transport. Modern packaging films are sustainable, recyclable or are made from recycled materials. With a view to the European Packaging Directive, this is indeed a boon.

Image: iStock

23.08.2024

Artificial intelligence for more process quality

Artificial intelligence (AI) will play an important part in the future in optimising processes within the food industry. It can lengthen the shelf life of food by allowing precise control of temperature and humidity, for example. AI analyses huge amounts of data in real time in order to guarantee optimum recipes and storage conditions and minimise spoiling.

Five brown eggs instead of six in an open egg carton on an orange background.

Image: Tanaonte/iStock

14.08.2024

More transparency for hidden price increases

Shopping for daily necessities has gotten expensive. But some products have become more expensive without a change in price – there is simply less content per package. Customers often do not notice this practice, called shrinkflation, to begin with. France and Hungary are now combatting this practice and obligating supermarkets to indicate hidden price increases.

Aldi UK has been at the forefront of many efforts to advance sustainability and reduce the carbon footprint of its product packaging

Image: Aldi

26.06.2024

ALDI UK using AI to provide visibility to its flexible plastic packaging efforts

Aldi UK is pioneering the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to assist in its recycling of flexible plastic packaging. The supermarket offers front-of-store collection points for such packaging and then applies technology from Greenback Recycling Technologies to track and verify the flow of material using eco2Veritas system. The project is supported by the brand-backed Flexible Plastic Fund.

Depending on composition, the colour of the final product may vary.

Image: Constanze Tillmann

25.06.2024

Kombucha leather – packaging from the tea lab

The packaging industry is looking for creative solutions to package food both safely and sustainably. A young team of students and researchers in Istanbul is currently working on prototypes of SCOBY, a leather-like biofilm made from fermented kombucha tea.

Long machine taking up three-storeys inside a hall

Image: Sappi

24.06.2024

Sustainable coatings for packaging papers

Food is more and more often wrapped in paper. But this natural material is porous and has next to no barrier properties against humidity, oxygen, grease or oil. Paper producers like Sappi are now coating their packaging papers sustainably using water-based barriers which do not impact later recycling. In research, a common topic is the development of bio-based barrier coating materials.

Image: GoUnpackaged

21.05.2024

The Refill Coalition aims to take reuse and refill mainstream

The UK-based Refill Coalition, led by the GoUnpackaged NGO, has worked with molder Berry Global and supply-chain firm CHEP to create a system designed to vastly reduce retailers’ need for single-use plastics packaging.

Image: unsplash/ Alexandre Lallemand

13.05.2024

Compulsive EU regulation for sustainable packaging not far away

Harmonising the rules on packaging and packaging waste within Europe is long overdue. The draft of a Europe-wide, compulsive packaging directive by the European Commission in 2022 has already passed through the different levels of legislation and could achieve final adoption in autumn. Industry representatives are both expressing approval and criticism.

Green box with tray with holes and glass jars

Image: Pacoon

12.03.2024

A sturdy concept for the future of reusable containers?

Within the planned EU packaging regulation, quotas for reusable containers play an important part. However, reusable container collection systems are not yet widespread in Europe. This is in spite of the fact that preserves, jams, fruit gums, sauces or dried products could come in reusable packaging in addition to beverages. Pacoon now has developed a new reusable container system.

Caroline Babendererde is Head of Sustainability Mid Europe at Tetra Pak

21.02.2024

“We must make packaging more attractive as a varied professional field”

In a world forced to meet the global challenges of sustainable food systems, progressive packaging solutions are indispensable. This includes the people working on these solutions. In this interview with Caroline Babendererde, Head of Sustainability Mid Europe at Tetra Pak, we discuss how to win young talents for the industry and the role of sustainability initiatives.

Image: SIG

13.12.2023

Cartons for Good project wins SAVE FOOD competition

1.3 billion tonnes of food are lost or wasted globally every year. With their project Cartons for Good, the SIG Foundation is using the SIG know-how to reduce theses losses. With a specially developed bottling station, the team supports communities in poorer countries to preserve food locally – and was able to win in the project competition by the SAVE FOOD Initiative.

Image: Juha Hakulinen, VTT Technical Research Center of Finland

30.11.2023

VTT PILOTS CELLULOSE AS ALTERNATIVE TO RIGID POLYPROPYLENE PACKAGING

Researchers at the VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland have developed formable, cellulose-based webs that they say offer a sustainable alternative to plastic in rigid polypropylene in food packaging applications.

Digitally watermarked yoghurt and kefir containers

Image: Aldi Süd Gruppe

14.11.2023

Final testing stage for HolyGrail 2.0

Digital watermarks could play a key role in the future when it comes to packaging recyclability. They are invisible to the human eye but carry a wealth of information. The HolyGrail 2.0 initiative aims to implement the technology for large-scale sorting of post-consumer waste, with plans for a test market in France in 2024. The final stage of testing has now begun.

Bild: Checkpoint Systems

11.10.2023

Keeping an eye on reusable containers

Since the beginning of 2023, reusable containers are mandatory in restaurants. For the proprietors, it is often not easy to keep track of stock levels and the necessary order quantities for resupply. This is where RFID systems can be useful, as they help to record each single container quickly and without contact. McDonald’s France is already using this technology for its reusable packaging.

Image: Siegwerk Druckfarben

11.10.2023

How coloured foil bags become colourless granules

Colourful plastic packaging sells well. However, the printing colour also prevents the packaging from being recycled in the form of transparent granules. Now there is a solution that completely removes printing colours and barrier coatings from foil bags. Afterwards, the packaging can be recycled to almost colourless granules.

Image: BASF

12.09.2023

What are the environmental impacts of alternative raw materials?

In mass balancing, chemically recycled or bio-based raw materials are input at the very beginning of plastics production and then computationally assigned to the end products. Using the example of flexible mozzarella packaging, a study investigated whether and how this procedure influences the life-cycle assessment of packaging produced from these raw materials.

Detail of a packaging plant with revolving grippers.

Image: Rotzinger

11.07.2023

Wireless automation

Manufacturing increasingly requires automated solutions that intelligently network components within plants. Rotzinger is therefore now using CoreTigo's wireless IO-link technology in its new machine for packaging food. The technology is being employedfor wireless control of grippers on a rail system as they move through the plant performing tasks.

Two men with a tray made from pulp material

Image: PulPac

11.07.2023

Eurostars project for fibre-based packaging concluded

As part of the Eurostars funding programme, PulPac in Sweden and the Bio-Lutions start-up in Germany have together developed a prototype for a new dry-moulded-fibre machine that’s able to process fibres from agricultural waste. The project saw them adapting standard components that are traditionally used to make plastic products.

Image: thyssenkrupp Rasselstein

13.06.2023

Tin packaging becomes more climate-friendly

They are regarded as best for recycling: Tin cans, tubes and bottles. But they don’t score well in terms of their carbon footprint because it is not yet possible to produce steel without using coal as the source of energy. Industry is, however, working on more sustainable solutions and has launched the first carbon-reduced steel for packaging.

Food packaging with compostable extrusion coating

Image: BASF

13.06.2023

Compostable coating for food-safe paper packaging

Barrier properties are particularly important to food packaging. Consumers are additionally demanding solutions that are environmentally friendly. BASF has developed an extrusion coating for paper and cardboard packaging, which may be composted both industrially and domestically.

Millad®️ NX®️ 8000 for PP certified by RecyClass for plastic packaging recycling in Europe.

Image: Milliken & Co.

23.05.2023

Mono-material packaging solutions take center stage at interpack

Polypropylene is durable, lightweight and very popular as a packaging material, but often requires multi-material constructions to ensure end-use performance, making such packages difficult to recycle. New material developments –– improving barrier properties and clarity –– are making effective, all-PP packages a reality.

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