Project SafeFoodPack Design: case study on indirect migration from paper and boards

In Silico Prediction of Food Properties: A Multiscale Perspective

Several open software packages have popularized modeling and simulation strategies at the food product scale. Food processing and key digestion steps can be described in 3D using the principles of continuum mechanics. However, compared to other branches of engineering, the necessary transport, mechanical, chemical, and thermodynamic properties have been insufficiently tabulated and documented. Natural variability, accented by food evolution during processing and deconstruction, requires considering composition and structure-dependent properties. This review presents practical approaches where the premises for modeling and simulation start at a so-called “microscopic” scale where constituents or phase properties are known. The concept of microscopic or ground scale is shown to be very flexible from atoms to cellular structures. Zooming in on spatial details tends to increase the overall cost of simulations and the integration over food regions or time scales. The independence of scales facilitates the reuse of calculations and makes multiscale modeling capable of meeting food manufacturing needs. On one hand, new image-modeling strategies without equations or meshes are emerging. On the other hand, complex notions such as compositional effects, multiphase organization, and non-equilibrium thermodynamics are naturally incorporated in models without linearization or simplifications. Multiscale method’s applicability to hierarchically predict food properties is discussed with comprehensive examples relevant to food science, engineering and packaging. Entropy-driven properties such as transport and sorption are emphasized to illustrate how microscopic details bring new degrees of freedom to explore food-specific concepts such as safety, bioavailability, shelf-life and food formulation. Routes for performing spatial and temporal homogenization with and without chemical details are developed. Creating a community sharing computational codes, force fields, and generic food structures is the next step and should be encouraged. This paper provides a framework for the transfer of results from other fields and the development of methods specific to the food domain.

[Reduction of the waste produced by convenience food consumption-Opportunities and challenges of deposit return based re-use containers]

The market for convenience food and services, like food-delivery, takeaway, and pre-prepared meals is steadily growing. Many of these products are offered in single use packaging. Consequently, the waste produced by convenience food consumption is also growing. Information from literature and available data from companies provide are used to provide an overview of this waste. Even though plastics contribute a significant part to this waste, it is just a part of it. Additionally, the substitutes used instead of plastics nowadays are mostly designed for single-use application. In terms of resource sustainability, the avoidance of waste production should be imperative. With this respect re-use containers gain a growing interest and are discussed as a good future option for some convenience food sectors. Examples reveal that the annual waste production linked to takeaway food could be reduced by over 90% by implementation of re-use containers. Furthermore, they also reduce the cost of waste management, and create new job opportunities.However, besides opportunities there are challenges. The theoretical waste reduction potential is high, the one gained in practice, however, is rather low. This is due to customers and sales stuff alike. Furthermore, the infrastructure required for such systems to work smoothly is not available everywhere. Especially space for cleaning, drying and storage of the re-use containers is sparse, depending on the type of facility.Finally, questions concerning the material used for re-use containers remain unanswered yet. Especially the growing concerns about Plastic Micro- and Nanobeads remain to be a black box.

The Ubiquitous Issue of Cross-Mass Transfer: Applications to Single-Use Systems

The leaching of chemicals by materials has been integrated into risk management procedures of many sectors where hygiene and safety are important, including food, medical, pharmaceutical, and biotechnological applications. The approaches focus on direct contact and do not usually address the risk of cross-mass transfer of chemicals from one item or object to another and finally to the contacting phase (e.g., culture medium, biological fluids). Overpackaging systems, as well as secondary or ternary containers, are potentially large reservoirs of non-intentionally added substances (NIAS), which can affect the final risk of contamination. This study provides a comprehensive description of the cross-mass transfer phenomena for single-use bags along the chain of value and the methodology to evaluate them numerically on laminated and assembled systems. The methodology is validated on the risk of migration i) of ϵ-caprolactam originating from the polyamide 6 internal layer of the overpackaging and ii) of nine surrogate migrants with various volatilities and polarities. The effects of imperfect contacts between items and of an air gap between them are particularly discussed and interpreted as a cutoff distance depending on the considered substance. A probabilistic description is suggested to define conservative safety-margins required to manage cross-contamination and NIAS in routine.