Development of biobased nanocomposites for food packaging applications
Accronym
NANOBIO
Total Budget
182.710 euros
Project ID
MAT2009-14533
Period
2009-2012
Funding agency
Spanish Ministry for Science and Innovation and ERDF
(Proyectos de Investigación fundamental no orientada - PNIDI 2007-2011 (PRE/621/2008))
Project Partners
Project Objective
This project aims at the development of novel nanostructured materials obtained by electrospinning of biobased macromolecules containing natural extracts and nanosilver as more efficient biocides and also of nanocapsules of bioactive components such as polyunsaturated fatty acids, β-carotene, resveratrol (antioxidants) and bifidobacteria (probiotics). The nanobioencapsulation of added value bioactives seeks to improve the stability and handling of these added value additives by inclusion in foods or in packaging structures to design novel food and bioactive packaging concepts.
Project Justification
Currently, there is a global trend to implement biobased materials in various applications, including encapsulation of functional additives and plastic food packaging.
While biobased materials can as such fulfil the property needs of many applications and in some cases can be more advantageous, there is still a lot of work needed to develop fully compliant materials that will permit the widespread substitution of oil-derived plastics. Advanced tools to help design more robust and multifunctional biomaterials are nanotechnology and active and bioactive technologies.
The main reason of this project is that there is an industrial need and significant academic interest in the development and understanding of highly efficient bioplastic-based systems with enhanced performance for their application in the encapsulation of bioactive ingredients and in the design of more efficient biopackaging. This project intends to fill in the technology gap by developing new multifunctional technologies and, from a fundamental point of view, in deepening in the understanding of the relation between structure, processing and properties of nanomaterials and nanocomposites.