Biodegradable films and nets obtained from horticultural wastes

In Andalusia, about 500,000 tons of fruit and vegetable by-products that cannot be recovered are produced, so they are landfilled. From these wastes and in line with the philosophy of circular economy, the project BIOVEGE has made possible the extraction of substances of high value for the packaging and food industry.

In particular, these are the elements developed from sugars obtained from watermelon and melon:

• Different types of biodegradable films with a thickness of 23 µm to be used as shrink film for the packaging of cucumbers and the manufacturing of bags for weighing all kinds of agricultural products.
• Biodegradable oriented net for the packaging of different agricultural products, oriented net for garlics and non-oriented net for green beans.

On the other hand, from other waste horticultural products such as tomato and pepper, active substances like vitamins, antioxidants and food colourants were obtained that have allowed to develop such products as single-serving sachets of vinaigrette dressing, or natural food colourants from lyophilized red pepper by-products as a replacement of artificial food colourants (cochineal (E-120) and carotenes (E-160a)) without differences regarding colour and giving aroma and taste to meat and vegan products.

The project BIOVEGE was awarded in May with the third prize for the Bio-Based Material 2018 in the German city of Köln