Plasticor

Students and alumni of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) have designed and produced a compostable (pending certification) plastic packaging that reveals the quality of the food. The product, called Plasticor, changes its color (the plastic has a biosensor) when the content is not suitable for consumption. Developed in the Xerém campus labs, the student-developed bioplastic is a sustainable option to avoid food waste.

According to the United Nations, 30% of all food produced on the planet is wasted and goes to trash. The color change of the packaging can contrinute to decrease the amount of food waste, by giving preference to those whose expiration is closer, plus ensuring the reliability of expired foods that can still be consumed safely.

Their packaging made for perishable food is "ecofriendly because it doesn’t use chemical additives and doesn’t take years to degrade" explains João Vítor Balbino, a Biophysics student and one of the seven members of the startup. They use a natural polymer and claim the material is compostable. Testing and certification process has been stopped during COVID but should be done as soon as possible.

The multidisciplinary team involves students from different fields including biotechnology, nanotechnology, biophysics and marketing, a doctoral student of Polymer Science and Technology, and a designer, all from UFRJ.

The team has developed their project through the creation of the startup ResGreen and are working on obtaining certification from the Ministry of Agriculture and the Sanitary Surveillance Agency (ANVISA) needed before the product is brought to the market.

Their patent is under proccess of being accepted.  With the arrival of the covid-19, many tests were stopped. Theoretically they claim to have all the datas, and just need to have them validated. 

They are looking for investors to proceed the scale up and carry out the analyzes that are missing.