Technological watch

Fresh food on self-service shelves, such as meat, poultry, or fish, must be well packaged so that it reaches the consumer’s table clean and germ-free.

With its organic and compostable PADECO moisture absorption pads, Pomona Company Ltd. Sp. z o.o. from the Polish ?yrardów ensures that liquids are trapped in the packaging and do not get into fresh food.

Pomona supplies the food processing industry with a range of absorption pads for fresh foods such as fruit, fish, and meat. At the same time, the company searched for an ecological alternative to traditional pads and packaging that would eliminate harmful chemicals and plastics from fresh food packaging – a completely organic and compostable solution.

The company was looking for a material that was compostable, valuable ecologically and which would be easier to process in the production. The absorber consists of cellulose nonwoven fabric, which is combined with the compostable film. A film is produced in a film blowing process, which is then applied to the surface of the absorber.

Cologne based Bio-Fed knew a solution and solved the problem. As a branch of AKRO-PLASTIC GmbH, Bio-Fed is the specialist for innovative and application-oriented biocompounds. Depending on the requirement profile, their compounds are biodegradable in different environments or suitable for permanent application – completely or partly made of renewable raw materials.

A compostable film grade from the M?VERA range, which is particularly suitable for this food contact application and certified according to EN 13432 with OK compost INDUSTRIAL from TÜV AUSTRIA Belgium was recommended for the compostable film applied on the PADECO absorbers.

The biodegradable PADECO® moisture absorption pads absorb fluids secreted by fresh foods. It has the advantage that their recycling process produces compost – unlike traditional pads, which are destroyed in the combustion process. In accordance with the zero-waste philosophy, the raw materials used to produce PADECO are returned to nature.

Source: Bioplastics MAGAZINE, 2020-07-02.