See all Innovation Awards

REDIT-AINIA – New cellulosic eco-packaging

EARTO Innovation Awards 2021 – Impact Expected Category

Several companies in the packaged food industrial sector are seeking a more sustainable packaging to meet the growing environmental as well as consumer’s demands. The new packaging needs, on the one hand, to guarantee the maintenance of quality and food safety level and, on the other hand, to reach the life-cycle level of plastic materials. There are already many eco-friendly packaging proposals on the market, however, their use is not widespread yet.

Innovation: AINIA, EARTO member through REDIT Innovation Network, developed the FIBTRAY, a cellulosic tray to reduce plastics in food packaging. It allows to obtain containers based on cellulosic material with a completely flat edge, which can be applied to all kinds of packaging and different types of flexible foil, depending on the requirements of each packaged food.

Impact Expected: AINIA’s innovation is in the technology transfer phase and its exploitation is already being negotiated. The FIBTRAY container aims to reach the market within the next year with an estimated business volume of €6M. It can reduce the use of plastics by 80%. More than 10 companies that produce packaged food, with an annual consumption of more than 700M packages, expressed their interest in AINIA’s product.