Fresh Solutions -A Fresh Approach to Packaging Material

Within the UK post-production supply-chain, > 15 Million tonnes of food & drink waste is created p.a, with 6.7Mt generated specifically by households. ~60% of household food waste arises from products ‘not used in time’ with a value of nearly £6.7bn. A significant focus of efforts to address this global challenge have centred around innovations in material and manufacturing processes particularly when attempting to prevent product deterioration & prolonging shelf life. To address the need for a low cost technology which extends the shelf life of food, this project will advance Fresh Solutions (from TRL4 to TRL6); a unique approach to the packaging of perishable food which utilises novel material to increase shelf life by 2-10days over state of the art technology whilst at the same time decreasing initial cost by 25%. To fully exploit the commercial opportunity available, a series of challenges need to be overcome to bring the cost of material manufacture to an acceptable market price. A step change in the manufacturing process is required to improve efficiencies, eliminate steps in the process and further develop the material itself. By reducing the final sale price of the material & extending market application, rapid penetration will be possible upon project end, with ~700tonnes (417.9million packs) of material to be sold by yr 5. For Four04 as lead applicant, the project will give at ROI on project costs of 5340% & deliver profit boost of 500% & revenue boost of 270% compared to without funding (see finance form). An ROI of 348% is expected for IG.