Sydney-based ‘impact investment’ team FP Paradigm has partnered with Future Food Systems CRC (FFS) in a multi-million-dollar research collaboration with the University of New South Wales (UNSW) to develop new food packaging materials that comply with the latest government regulations.
FP Paradigm says it will work with leading chemical engineers, nanotechnologists, composite materials, life-cycle sustainability and economic modelling experts within UNSW’s Faculty of Engineering on a suite of projects that aim to produce a new generation of food and beverage packaging based on circular-economy principles.
The primary goal of the initiative is to speed Australia’s transition from today’s food and beverage packaging standard – transparent petroleum-based material – to a sustainably produced material with similar properties.
The eight-project initiative is also looking to develop ‘smart’ sensor-based labels that can be embedded in the new-gen packaging to aid traceability and warn of imminent spoilage; assess the life-cycle sustainability of the new packaging materials; and conduct economic discrete choice modelling to ascertain the value of these developments to the food and beverage sector.
“One of the most pressing environmental problems today is transparent plastic packaging for food and beverages,” FP Paradigm director Eduard Alcordo said. “The Australian Packaging Covenant Organisation (APCO) and governments have come up with targets to have all packaging recycled by 2025.
“To date, there is no satisfactory recycling technology that addresses the problem of transparent plastic recycling for the food and beverages industry.
“FP Paradigm, together with researchers at the UNSW, industrial partners and Future Food Systems, is looking to address this problem.
“We believe that the team we have, including researchers, industrial partners and Future Food Systems CRC, is most suited to deliver a breakthrough in the area of transparent food and beverage packaging, at the same time eliminating waste,” Alcordo said.
FP Paradigm also hopes to achieve the broader objective of making the new technologies and products commercially viable within the next few years.
“FP Paradigm has received advance finding from AusIndustry for a Research and Development Tax Incentive (RDTI) of $46 million in expenditure for two years,” Alcordo said.
“The group aims to reach over 70 per cent of the transparent food and beverage packaging market in Australia in this time.”
All of this will be welcome news to food and beverage manufacturers, retailers, distributors, exporters and consumers – as well as to government bodies keen to meet carbon-reduction targets, said FFS CEO and former food scientist Dr James Krahe.
“This collaboration will focus on developing tangible outcomes to benefit food and beverage manufacturers and consumers – along with aiming to reduce the impacts of food packaging on the environment,” he said.
“It is strengthened by the vast knowledge and experience of all parties involved.”
“In a nutshell, the team will look to fabricate new-generation monomers from the carbon dioxide emissions generated by gasifying agrifood-waste biomass and/or from waste plastic, in conjunction with water and sunlight,” explained ‘CEFW transparent packaging’ project lead, Associate Professor Jason Scott.
Other sub-projects will develop existing sensor technology and QR codes for various food and beverage packaging applications, said Professor Rona Chandrawati, research lead on the colorimetric sensor labels and food traceability QR sensors projects.
“We will look to attach colorimetric sensors to the packaging that can track food quality in real-time and change colour to inform consumers when the product is no longer safe for consumption, as well as QR codes that track food and beverage products right along the supply chain,” she said.
The sustainable packaging project is set to begin in July 2023 and run until the end of the 2025-2026 financial year.
