At the recently concluded world-leading trade fair for the food industry, Meat Tech Pro was captivated by a wave of sustainable solutions changing the industry’s landscape. Among the award-winning innovations endorsed by the GERMAN AGRICULTURE ASSOCIATION – DLG was the use of alginate for sustainable packaging. This groundbreaking method promises not only to reduce environmental impacts but also aligns with the growing demand for eco-friendly practices.
With increasing environmental concerns and consumer preferences for environmentally friendly products, the demand for sustainable packaging solutions is growing. The system is a new process for packaging liquid or pasty products such as gels, beverages or sauces in pouches. The preferred packaging material for flowpack machines has been and still is plastic film.
There are already many approaches to reduce the use of (disposable) plastics as packaging material. The trend is towards very thin, recyclable films or films that are biodegradable within 24 months according to DIN standard EN 13432A.
One disadvantage is the great effort required for disposal after use. A considerable part of the material is not recycled, but incinerated or often simply disposed of. The new system does not use prefabricated plastic film as a cover, but alginate. The alginate wrapper is produced in a co-extrusion process simultaneously with the filling of the respective product. In the process, the wrapper gels around the product and is sealed.
The alginate bags are edible or can simply be disposed of after use. They biodegrade in just a few weeks. The system is energy efficient, intuitive to use and can be quickly converted to different sachet sizes. It offers the industry new opportunities to replace plastic films, which are increasingly unpopular with consumers but are often used as packaging material in form-fill-seal machines, thus reducing plastic waste.
Alginate, which is derived from algae, is an ecological and sustainable biodegradable alternative raw material and is thus another approach to solving existing packaging problems. It is suitable for a wide range of applications, although its limitations, such as lower stability, different barrier properties and no resealability of the packaging, must be taken into account.
