Next generation food packaging materials – wood fibre-based packaging with biobased water and gas barriers

The vision of the NxtBarr project is to develop fully biobased, recyclable, and biodegradable packaging materials that can replace plastic without compromising on food safety or lead to more food waste. While cellulosic materials have good barriers against oxygen and grease, they are natively hydrophilic and barrier against water is therefore a large challenge. Fibre based packaging has thus often a plastic film in direct contact with the food. The NxtBarr project will address this challenge and develop new sustainable barrier concepts for fibre-based food packaging based on biopolymers using novel approaches to obtain water repellent and dense surfaces.