Development of sustainable bionanocomposite materials for perishable foods & drinks shelf life extension: delivering better food for all

食物浪费是一项重大的全球挑战，英国也不例外，2018年估计有950万吨食物浪费。这对英国的环境(2500万吨温室气体)、社会(840万人生活在粮食不安全的情况下)和经济(19B损失)产生了重大的年度影响。为了应对这一挑战，英国政府制定了目标，如到2030年将食物浪费减少50%。英国约三分之二的食品和饮料包装是由塑料制成的，其中大部分是一次性使用的，导致300万吨垃圾。这些导致了大量的温室气体排放(预计到2050年将达到温室气体排放的15%)、微塑料污染(存在于全球90%的瓶装水中)和堆积在垃圾填埋场(86%最终进入垃圾填埋场)。导致三分之二的消费者包装利益相关者签署了英国塑料协议，寻求更可持续、负担得起和更高效的包装解决方案。健康的食品可及性仍然是一个主要的经济障碍，其成本约为不健康选择的3倍。再加上高昂的可持续包装成本(比合成包装成本高50%)，供应商和消费者改变英国的饮食习惯没有商业利益。MetalChemy将开发一种先进的生物纳米复合材料，用于营养产品(如肉类、水果、蔬菜和强化产品、果汁)的食品包装，以延长食品的货架期、价格、营养和安全，同时可生物降解。我们的技术集成旨在匹配合成塑料的关键特性，防止营养损失，并避免真菌和细菌的生长。MetalChemy包装的好处包括：*提高食品营养价值将促进公众健康，降低医疗成本和NHS负担。*减少食品垃圾将减少企业和消费者的经济损失，减少温室气体排放，并增加英国供应链的弹性。*塑料垃圾将通过可持续包装的替代减少。MetalChemy拥有获得专利的绿色银纳米技术，并在生物阳极复合材料开发方面拥有技术诀窍，以交付该项目的成果。我们将用来自雷丁大学食品和营养科学系的食品科学专家来补充我们的团队，他们是这个项目的合作伙伴。通过为我们的包装寻求食品安全认证，并与工业食品机构合作，我们将继续专注于一种负担得起的和可持续的生物纳米复合材料，以提高食品质量和货架寿命。我们技术的发展将克服目前生物塑料的限制，改善食品供应和质量，并使英国成为负担得起的营养食品的全球领导者。

Food waste is a major global challenge, and the UK is no exception, having an estimated food waste of 9.5 Mtonnes in 2018\. This has a significant annual impact on the UK's environment (25 Mtonnes GHG), society (8.4M live with food insecurity) and economy (£19B loss). To tackle this challenge, the UK government has set targets such as reducing food waste by 50% by 2030\.Around two-thirds of all food & drink packaging in the UK is made from plastic, the majority being single-use resulting in 3 Mtonnes of waste. These contribute towards vast amounts of GHG emissions (expected to reach 15% of GHG emissions by 2050), microplastic pollution (present in 90% of bottled water globally), and accumulation in landfills (86% ends up in landfill). Leading to two-thirds of consumer packaging stakeholders signing up to the UK Plastics Pacts, looking for more sustainable, affordable and efficient packaging solutions.Healthy food accessibility is still also a major economic barrier being around 3x more expensive than unhealthy options. Together with high sustainable packaging costs (50% more expensive than synthetic counterparts), there are no commercial benefits for suppliers and consumers to change UK eating habits.Metalchemy will develop an advanced bionanocomposite material aimed towards food packaging for nutritious products (e.g meat, fruits, vegetables and fortified products, juices) to improve food shelf-life, affordability, nutrition and safety whilst being biodegradable. Our technology integration aims to match key properties of synthetic plastics, prevent nutrient loss and avoid fungi and bacteria growth.Benefits of Metalchemy's packaging include:* Improved food nutritional value will boost public health, reduce healthcare costs and NHS burden.* Food waste reduction will reduce economic losses for both businesses and consumers, decrease greenhouse gas emissions, and increase the UK supply chain resilience.* Plastic waste will be reduced through its replacement with sustainable packaging.Metalchemy owns patented green silver nanotechnology and has know-how in bionanocomposite development to deliver the outputs of this project. We will complement our team with experts in food science from the Department of Food and Nutritional Sciences at the University of Reading, partners in this project. By pursuing food safety certification for our packaging and collaborating with industrial food institutions, we will remain focused on an affordable and sustainable bionanocomposite to enhance food quality and shelf-life.The development of our technology will overcome current bioplastics limitations, improve food availability and quality, and make the UK the global leader in affordable nutritious foods.