Aimplas assists Guacapack Project in converting avocado waste to shelf life-extending packaging

16 Apr 2021 --- Aimplas’ Plastics Technology Centre is supporting the Guacapack Project in developing a biodegradable packaging system from avocado waste capable of extending food shelf life by 15 percent.

The Guacapack Project is funded by the Valencian Innovation Agency and led by ITC Packaging with additional support from the Universidad de Alicante’s research group on Polymer and Nanomaterial Analysis.

The project’s packaging system will include barrier labels and antioxidant additives, protecting guacamole and similar foodstuffs from oxidation.

“The project is expected to finish at the end of this year, with the production of functional packaging prototypes, prior to the commercialization steps,” Rosa González, the project’s lead researcher at Aimplas, tells PackagingInsights.

Value-adding avocados
The waste produced during the processing of avocados for food items can account for more than 45 percent of their total weight, the Spanish research group highlights.

The project aims to develop a new biodegradable packaging system from this waste, extending food shelf life through an oxygen barrier label and the incorporation of natural antioxidants extracted from avocados. The natural antioxidants also reduce the use of synthetic preservatives.

The process extracts and purifies starch from the avocado seed to produce a film for multilayer IML labels with oxygen barrier properties.

Rosa González, the project’s lead researcher at Aimplas.Moreover, the high antioxidant active components of waste avocado skin and flesh can be used as a component of PLA bioplastic and injection-molded to manufacture the packaging system. 

“The main challenge is to achieve the required barrier properties to protect the food product, as biodegradable materials do not show the same barrier performance as conventional plastic packaging structures,” explains González.

“In this sense, both the incorporation of natural antioxidants from avocado in the packaging material and development of barrier labels based on starch should provide the necessary barrier performance.”

Packaging prototypes
After extraction and purification of starch and natural antioxidants, the next step is incorporating them into the packaging material, González continues.

“In the case of antioxidants, they will be incorporated in the rigid container as an additive of the biodegradable plastic.”

“In the case of starch, it will be incorporated as a layer in a multilayer label for in-mold labeling.”

“Prototypes will be produced for the validation of the new packaging performance and compliance with European legislation regarding food contact plastics materials.”The waste produced during avocado processing can account for more than 45% of their total weight.

A circular solution
The Guacapack Project’s solution provides an alternative to synthetic additives and a new value-added use for agri-food waste, fully aligning with circular economy criteria.

The project can also help achieve the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), especially SDG 3 on Good Health and Well-Being, SDG 9 on Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure, and SDG 12 on Responsible Consumption and Production.

Aimplas helps companies apply circular economy criteria to their business models and turn the legislative changes affecting the plastics industry into opportunities to improve efficiency, reduce environmental impact and increase profitability.

The company also conducts research into recycling, biodegradable materials and products, and the use of biomass and CO2 to help solve environmental challenges.

This month, the Aimplas-led EU-funded Dafia project released the results of an investigation into turning fish and municipal waste into biopolymers and other barrier packaging materials.

By Joshua Poole