Bio-based plastics are combining with active and intelligent technologies in packaging, says new research. Bioplastics World investigates their market potential

When it comes to packaged fish or meat, it is nearly impossible to distinguish between fresh goods and their inedible counterparts.

This seems an obvious area where packaging with enhanced properties, for example the ability to alter colours to indicate changes in the state of foodstuffs, would have a tremendous amount to offer on the supermarket shelf.

There are numerous more subtle and complex ways that altering packaging can offer real benefits. For example, it is possible to embed electronic circuits within packaging. These can power complex video or audio technologies. A typical example might include a motion sensor, detecting when a customer passes by a product in store.

At this point, the packaging might communicate visually or through an audio signal, to grab the attention of the consumer. Indeed, other existing active and intelligent packaging can download apps to the customer's smartphone before they leave the store, or make sure that the device is fully charged.

Advances
Technologies of this kind are regularly being announced. In April 2011, the Fraunhofer Research Institution for Modular Solid State Technologies EMFT in Munich, Germany unveiled a new sensor film. The film can change from blue to green or yellow to warn of spoiled food, such as meat or fish, inside the packaging. EMFT developed the film in a project sponsored by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research.

The sensor film is integrated into the packaging interior, where it responds to biogenic amines. Amines are molecules produced when foods - fish and meat mostly - decay. They are also responsible for their unpleasant smell. If amines are released into the air within the packaging, the indicator dye on the sensor film reacts with them and changes its colour from yellow to blue.

The scientists are also working on a measurement module with a built-in sensor film. Employees in the food and packaging industries might then use the module to test the freshness of food products directly. The device would objectively analyse the colour response, while providing a more precise result than is possible with the human eye.
The Fraunhofer work is still awaiting commercialisation, but it points to the future for packaging. Well within a decade, it will no longer be sufficient to merely hit environmental credentials. Biopackaging will need to do this alongside offering more advanced functionality.

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