Market Implementation of Active and Intelligent Packaging – Opportunities from a Socio-economic Perspective

Abstract

Bioeconomy is based on the shift from fossil to renewable raw materials to respond to the challenges of climate change, ecological scarcity and depletion of natural resources. Packaging plays an important role in the bioeconomy. The demand for high quality active and intelligent packaging (AIP) concepts is constantly increasing. Most of the current active or intelligent packaging solutions are plastic-based, so there is a clear demand for renewable and sustainable solutions to create new packaging materials and concepts. The use of bio-based materials in packaging decreases the dependence on fossil fuels. Wood based biomass that is available in a large scale offers attractive “green” polymers. Also biopolymers that are based on agricultural or other waste streams offer interesting alternatives for traditional oil-based polymers. Developments of new fibre-based packaging materials with active and intelligent features offer huge potential, as AIP can help to optimise the supply chain, increase food shelf life and consumer consciousness of food utilisation. However, very few of the potential and existing solutions currently have been able to reach the market. To identify the key social, technical and technological, economic, ecologic, and legislative factors that hinder this market introduction, COST Action FP1405 Active and intelligent fibre-based packaging - innovation and market introduction (ActInPak) was established in 2015. Within this multidisciplinary platform, both science and industry gathered to gain insights in the barriers towards market introduction of active and intelligent solutions in packaging industry. This paper presents these insights especially from the socio-economic perspective. Furthermore, this paper discussed about possibilities of certain bio-based materials for packaging concepts, including a novel biopolymer PHA and lignocellulose-based materials such as cellulose and lignin films.