Italian company to develop bio-based packaging materials

Bologna - The bioplastic developed by Bio-on, an Italian Intellectual Property Company (IPC), will be the focus of a new European project designed to produce new sustainable and biodegradable food packaging materials in the coming years. The project for new bio-based food packaging materials with enhanced barrier properties, or the 'Bio-Barr' project, was granted a 3,784,375 euro financing by the Bio-based Industries Public Private Partnership, under the EU Commission's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation programme.

The EU Commission's independent scientific experts have given an excellent review of the 'Bio-Barr', which is due to kick off on June 1, 2017. Coordinated by Tecnoalimenti S.C.p.A., the project will run for four years and enjoy the participation of seven prestigious public and private European partners from Italy, Spain, Denmark and Finland. The project's goal is to develop new bio-based and biodegradable food packaging materials, while improving and enhancing their barrier functionalities and increasing their application in the food industry. R&D activities will focus on PHAs bio-polymers (polyhydroxyalkanoates) produced with Bio-on technology.

"We are extremely proud to participate in the 'BioBarr' project, and to be an active partner in this diversified team of researchers and companies which well complement each other," said Marco Astorri, president and CEO of Bio-on." It will allow us to study and enhance the potential of our bioplastic with a view to delivering new solutions for food packaging in the consumer goods sector," Mr Astorri concluded. Bio-on, which is an AIM-listed company on Borsa Italiana [the Italian Bourse], is the project's major scientific partner and will get a 800,000 euro non-repayable EU funding to produce, develop and test PHAs films to be adjusted to the project's applications.

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