An industry-led project with Bangor University in Wales has reached the prototype trials stage in the development of sustainable food packaging produced using Welsh ryegrass.
Using cutting-edge pulp moulding equipment, researchers at Bangor University have begun a process of heating mixtures of ryegrass to press and mould into prototype fruit and vegetable packaging products.
The Sustainable Products from Ryegrass (STARS) project, a collaborative programme of research between Bangor and Aberystwyth Universities and six industrial partners including supermarket Waitrose, has received funding of almost £600,000 from the Welsh Government’s Academic Expertise for Business (A4B) programme.
The project is investigating a range of products that can be produced from ryegrass, including easily recycled, fibre-based packaging for foods and other low carbon commodity materials including biofuels and platform chemicals.
In addition to Waitrose, packaging group Adare will be supplying the fibre-based packaging for store trials.
The project is being led by the BioComposites Centre at Bangor University and the Institute of Biological Environmental and Rural Sciences at Aberystwyth University.
Dr Adam Charlton, of Bangor University’s Biocomposites Centre, said: “Working on trials to produce prototype packaging marks an exciting halfway phase in the project and in the coming 12 months we’ll be focusing on optimising these materials through collaboration with Adare and Waitrose.”
Derek Davies, packaging technical manager for Adare, said: “Adare already has an extensive range of fibre-based trays and punnets marketed under its Fibellus brand and this important project will be an opportunity for us to investigate the feasibility of using this exciting alternative Welsh raw material as a source for food and non-food packaging.
“We’re keen to develop our range of practical, environmentally-friendly alternatives to plastic formats and we’re confident that this project could further augment this range of options.”
