Can packaging be sustainable?

The influence of packaging on food and how to make existing packaging solutions more environmentally friendly was investigated by the Interreg study QualiMeat, led by MCI, in a three-year research project. The subject of the investigations was the product meat, which has a high degree of variability due to its nature and is particularly sensitive. The interesting results: It is true that there are clear differences in type and structure between the individual packaging systems tested. However, it does not matter whether conventional packaging materials or bio-based materials are used for MAP packaging.

Meat consumption in German-speaking countries is still high. Most meat is sold in supermarkets. Because meat and sausage products are among the most perishable foods of all, germs and oxidation occur even under sterile conditions during processing and preparation for the supermarket. So the packaging solution must be all the more efficient. The most common packaging systems at present are vacuum-packed - so-called "skin packs" - and MAP packs, in which the meat is packed in a modified packaging atmosphere (MAP) and which have an air-filled headspace above the meat. Both packaging methods were analysed in the study. Both conventional plastic and bio-based films were tested as packaging materials. The most exciting result of the study: biodegradable MAP films show the same performance as conventional materials. The machine capability of the new films was also tested. It turns out that a conversion to sustainable packaging materials is possible with existing machines.

"In our extensive testing, bio-based packaging performed just as well as previously common materials, and it can be used on conventional packaging machines. These results are certainly one of the great achievements of the study. They could also be confirmed in initial preliminary tests on an industrial scale with the company Feneberg Lebensmittel GmbH," says project manager Katrin Bach, expressing her satisfaction.

The QualiMeat project

QualiMeat was funded by the European Interreg programme and ran under the leadership of the MCI from September 2016 to December 2019. The aim was to investigate the interactions between fresh meat and packaging and to use the findings to optimise packaging materials and packaging processes. MCI's project partners were the University of Innsbruck, the Kempten University of Applied Sciences, the Kempten Centre for Food and Packaging Industry and the two packaging specialists Multivac in the Allgäu region and the Tyrolean company Naturabiomat. The MCI researchers were particularly responsible for the physico-chemical investigations as well as for the knowledge and technology transfer in order to be able to apply the new findings in practice.