Abstract

The packaging industry is under pressure to improve both its environmental and competitive performance. Environmental sustainability is a topical issue that receives plenty of attention from the media and from different governmental departments. Problems of food contamination and of substances migration from packaging are always focus of attention. The project, entitled Development of bio-based coating from tomato processing wastes intended for metal packaging (BIOCOPAC), has developed a novel bio-lacquer for metal food packaging designed to meet current demand for sustainable production. This innovation will increase the competitiveness of the metal cans industry, cut unnecessary waste and protect consumers. The first preliminary results with the first lacquer formulations can be considered positive and promising.

INTRODUCTION

General introduction with quantitative data about tomato by-products and metal packs production and about LCA’s impact
The recent greater attention toward hygiene, safety and environmental problems is requiring food industries to adopt eco-friendly, safe and more sustainable packaging for the consumer. Problems of food contamination and of substances migration from packaging are always focus of attention.
Environmental sustainability forces businesses to look beyond making short term gains and look at the long term impact they are having on the natural world. The considerable emphasis on the recovery, recycling and upgrading of by-products is part of this trend.
In fact by-products pose increasing disposal and potentially severe pollution problems and represent a loss of valuable biomass and nutrients, that can be recovered and be upgraded to higher value and useful products, according to the Waste Framework Directive, that sets more ambitious targets for the re-use, recycling and recovery of some categories of waste (1).
The Biocopac project aims to meet these demands by developing a novel bio-lacquer for m ...