Development of sustainable bionanocomposite materials for perishable foods & drinks shelf life extension: delivering better food for all

开发用于易腐烂食品的可持续生物纳米复合材料

• 批准号: 10075083
• 金额: $ 74.61万
• 依托单位: METALCHEMY LIMITED
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Collaborative R&D
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2023 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=10075083
• 关键词: Development; sustainable; bionanocomposite; materials; perishable

Food waste is a major global challenge, and the UK is no exception, having an estimated food waste of 9.5 Mtonnes in 2018\. This has a significant annual impact on the UK's environment (25 Mtonnes GHG), society (8.4M live with food insecurity) and economy (£19B loss). To tackle this challenge, the UK government has set targets such as reducing food waste by 50% by 2030\.Around two-thirds of all food & drink packaging in the UK is made from plastic, the majority being single-use resulting in 3 Mtonnes of waste. These contribute towards vast amounts of GHG emissions (expected to reach 15% of GHG emissions by 2050), microplastic pollution (present in 90% of bottled water globally), and accumulation in landfills (86% ends up in landfill). Leading to two-thirds of consumer packaging stakeholders signing up to the UK Plastics Pacts, looking for more sustainable, affordable and efficient packaging solutions.Healthy food accessibility is still also a major economic barrier being around 3x more expensive than unhealthy options. Together with high sustainable packaging costs (50% more expensive than synthetic counterparts), there are no commercial benefits for suppliers and consumers to change UK eating habits.Metalchemy will develop an advanced bionanocomposite material aimed towards food packaging for nutritious products (e.g meat, fruits, vegetables and fortified products, juices) to improve food shelf-life, affordability, nutrition and safety whilst being biodegradable. Our technology integration aims to match key properties of synthetic plastics, prevent nutrient loss and avoid fungi and bacteria growth.Benefits of Metalchemy's packaging include:* Improved food nutritional value will boost public health, reduce healthcare costs and NHS burden.* Food waste reduction will reduce economic losses for both businesses and consumers, decrease greenhouse gas emissions, and increase the UK supply chain resilience.* Plastic waste will be reduced through its replacement with sustainable packaging.Metalchemy owns patented green silver nanotechnology and has know-how in bionanocomposite development to deliver the outputs of this project. We will complement our team with experts in food science from the Department of Food and Nutritional Sciences at the University of Reading, partners in this project. By pursuing food safety certification for our packaging and collaborating with industrial food institutions, we will remain focused on an affordable and sustainable bionanocomposite to enhance food quality and shelf-life.The development of our technology will overcome current bioplastics limitations, improve food availability and quality, and make the UK the global leader in affordable nutritious foods.

食物浪费是全球的主要挑战，英国也不例外，2018年估计食品浪费为9.5磨坊。这对英国的环境（25 Mtonnes温室气体），社会（840万人居住在粮食不安全感）和经济（19b英镑亏损）上产生了重大影响。为了应对这一挑战，英国政府设定了将食品浪费减少到2030年的50％\。这些有助于大量的温室气体排放（预计到2050年达到温室气体排放的15％），微型污染（全球90％的瓶装水）以及垃圾填埋场的积累（86％的垃圾填埋场中最终出现在垃圾填埋场中）。导致三分之二的消费者包装利益相关者签署了英国塑料协议，寻找更可持续，负担得起和高效的包装解决方案。健康的食品可及性仍然是一个主要的经济障碍，比不健康的选择贵3倍。加上较高的可持续包装成本（比合成对应物高出50％），供应商和消费者改变英国饮食习惯没有商业利益。MetalChemy将开发出一种旨在用于营养产品的食品包装的先进的BiionAnocomposite材料（例如，用于营养产品（例如，肉类，果实，蔬菜，蔬菜和加固性产品，果汁，果汁，果汁，果汁，果汁），可改善食品，可改善可承受的生物，可承受的果实，果实，果实，并构成了果实，并构成了果实，并构成了果实的安全性。我们的技术整合旨在与合成塑料的关键特性相匹配，防止营养损失并避免真菌和细菌的生长。金属造影包装的效果包括：*改善的食品营养价值将促进公共健康，减少医疗保健成本，减少医疗费用和NHS负担。通过可持续包装的替代品降低。Metalchemy拥有获得专利的绿色银纳米技术，并在Bionanocompostose开发方面拥有专有技术，以实现该项目的产量。我们将与雷丁大学食品和营养科学系的食品科学专家一起完成我们的团队，该项目的合作伙伴。通过为我们的包装寻求食品安全认证，并与工业食品机构合作，我们将继续专注于负担得起且可持续的Biionanocomposite，以提高食品质量和保质期。我们技术的开发将克服当前的生物塑料限制，提高食品可用性和质量，并使英国成为全球性的营养营养食品的全球领导者。