Competition in the food sector is really high, so companies are continuously looking for improvements to stand out. Here we present you with the current packaging innovations of the sector to better meet the customer demands.

Edible Packaging

It is well-known that, worried about the huge quantities of wastes in the packaging of food and beverage, companies and researchers are looking for new containers that are edible, avoiding the thousands of plastic packages used nowadays.

Casein

The first solution is a packaging film made of milk proteins called casein, which is even better at preventing spoilage of food because of its powerful oxygen blockers. What is more, nutritious additives can be included, such as vitamins, as well as a flavor.

Ooh

Secondly, the startup Skipping Locks Lab have developed a product called Ooho. It is an edible micromembrane made of plants and seaweed which pursue to replace the plastic bottles. What makes Ooho very attractive is that, in addition of being biodegradable, its manufacturing process is cheaper and has a lower environmental impact than the plastic bottles one. The sphere is flexible and it could be the recipient of any kind of liquid.

Micro packaging

Although Micro packaging ambitions are to reach all the packaging industry, in the food industry it presents potential benefits such as improved bio-availability, antimicrobial effects, enhanced sensory acceptance and targeted delivery of bioactive compounds.

Micro-film

A research team at Texas A&M university has developed micro-film using nanotechnology. The material, which is thousands of times thinner than human hair, consists solely of water, a soluble polymer and 70% clay particles. Although it is not biodegradable, it has lower environmental impact than traditional plastic packaging.

Durethan

Durethan is a plastic film developed by the pharmaceutical company Bayer that uses clay nanoparticules that prevents oxygen, moisture and carbon dioxide from decomposing food products.

As you can see, the future of the packaging industry is still fuzzy and there is a huge gap to innovate. We invite you to do so in our latest engineering challenge that aims to replace the use of plastic materials in their 6-bottle pack. You can join our community here.