Stakeholders’ Event in 2019

On the 5th June 2019, the first Stakeholders’ Event of the GLOPACK project was organised in Verona, Italy.

The Stakeholders’ event was organized to discuss the issues related to sustainable and biodegradable food packaging, and to provide their expert view and feedback on the results of the project.

Seven members attended and contributed greatly to the success of the event.

The opening presentation was held by Valerie Guillard (University of Montpellier), the Coordinator of GLOPACK on the issues with the current plastic packaging management and the possible solutions and she presented what GLOPACK can offer to solve

Then, András Sebők (Campden BRI Hungary) presented the concept and importance of the Stakeholders’ Platform within a framework of a Horizon2020 project.

The Stakeholders’ Event was divided into 3 sessions:

We had on-point, consise presentations in the 1st session presenting the ‘Benefits of using bio-based and biodegradable packaging materials’.

Silvia Codelupi presented the experience of Coopbox on integratating biodegradable materials to the current plastics processing chain. Then, the topic of ‘Potential conversion of agro-food waste into polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) by mixed microbial cultures’ was presented by Maria Reis from iBET and  Simone Nortilli from Innoven.

The 1st session was ended with a round table discussion on material aspects of bio-based food packaging and on opportunities of using biodegradable packaging materials for replacing single use plastics.

The 2nd session focused on the Modelling and decision-making tools. Three tools were presented: The GLOPACK’s Expert Model Platform was presented by Noel Rogers (Creme Global), the O2 Scavenging Model by Sébastien Gaucel (INRA) and the Creme Global FACET migration model by Maeve Cushen (Creme Global).The second session ended with a guided practical excersise to get familiar with the use of the Expert Model Platform.

In the afternoon, a plenary session was organized to present the progress and status of Work Packaging 1 on evaluating and analyzing the requirements of the stakeholders such as packaging producers, food companies , consumers, legislators, and Work Packaging 2 on process optimization and large-scale production of raw constituents and their compounding, and their shaping into biodegradable composites.

Before the closing the event, Maurizio Nortarfonso (FEDERALIMENTARE – Federazione Italiana dell’Industria Alimentare) presented REINWASTE Interreg project. REINWASTE aims at helping companies from the food industry and the agriculture reduce their own packaging and replace them by recycled plastics. The project sets up a methodology to prevent and minimize their waste and valorize the use of bio-based materials within the products and processes.

Later, Valerie Guillard concluded the event and invited all participants to visit the pilot plant of Innoven.

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