Periodic Reporting for period 2 - Cronogard (HIGH PERFORMING ADVANCED MATERIAL PLATFORM FOR ACTIVE AND INTELLIGENTFOOD PACKAGING: CRONOGARD™)
Berichtszeitraum: 2018-10-01 bis 2020-03-31
A recent report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has raised the alarm concerning global warming and the potential effect on land use, food security and food production systems, highlighting amongst others the likely dramatic acceleration of decrease in crop yield in the next 20 years due to temperature rise across the globe. If yields collapse keeping food for longer on shelves will become an absolute priority to feed the planet. Now more than ever solutions such as Cronogard are needed to mitigate the risks ahead. Based on our first year of tests and fine-tuning, we found that Cronogard can increase the shelf-life of foodstuff between 20 to 200% (depending on the type of food concerned), significantly helping reduce food waste.
The Cronogard SME Instrument Phase 2 project was awarded funding in the autumn of 2017 for a maximum of €1,576,238 to spend over 30 months to introduce on the food packaging market an innovative, advanced-material technology platform (Cronogard) based on an organic-inorganic filler, edible and biocompatible, characterized by a lamellar structure able to intercalate with ionic bonds molecules (antimicrobial, antioxidant, antibacterial), capable of maintaining the quality of food and to extend its shelf-life.
The impact of the project has already materialised on the project team as, thanks to the EIC/EC funding, we have been able to grow the team to include additional members expert in project management, communications and marketing, financial management and, absolutely essential for the development of the required solutions, additional scientific profiles, such as a chemistry PhD holder who has recently joined the team. Added credibility has also resulted in the possibility to agree collaborations (at no costs to Cronogard) to test our product as a shared-risk endeavour with 11 industrial partners on different applications of the food packaging industry such as meat, dairy, fresh vegetables and fruits, cheese, bread or ready-meals.
Cronogard is entering the market with 2 family of products: lacquers for cartonboard printing and plastic film coating, and masterbatches for extruding polymeric films. Each family includes different specific products (at M30, we have 3 lacquers and 2 masterbatches product codes). Future prospects for the post-project phase include many more products, each specific for the application material and the type of filler used."