Lidl Switzerland is working with the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (Empa) to research a cellulose-based coating as a protective layer for fruit and vegetable products. The innovative coating is made from pomace (fruit and vegetable press residue) and is intended to replace plastic packaging in the future. Lidl Switzerland emphasises that the new solution is more sustainable than conventional packaging solutions. This means that the amount of packaging used should be reduced, food waste avoided and the shelf life of fruit and vegetables extended.
Carbotech has therefore compared the environmental impact of three packaging options for a cucumber using a life cycle assessment: Coating with the cellulose-based liquid, conventional plastic film (PE) and a variant without packaging (shorter shelf life).
The calculations show that the cellulose-based protective layer is the more ecological packaging solution than conventional plastic film: the ecological footprint of a coated cucumber is almost six times smaller than that of a cucumber in plastic film. In terms of food waste, this means that the coated cucumber would still be the better choice even if it produced up to 60 grams more food waste (due to spoilage of the cucumber) than the film-wrapped cucumber. This statement applies as long as the raw material for the cellulose-based coating is an organic waste product. This is because the great advantage of the coating is that the raw material (in this case carrot pomace) is a waste product to which no pollution is attributed. Secondly, the production of the application liquid and the packaging process are less energy-intensive.