PhD Student: Ghislain Fotie
Tutor: Prof. Luciano Piergiovanni
Dean: Prof. Francesco Bonomi, DeFENS
Research area: Food Science and Nutrition & Chemistry and Biochemistry
Research topic
Cellulose nanoparticles (nanocrystals and nanofibrils) in food systems: novel food packaging materials; bioactive functionalized components; releasing systems; bioprocesses for by-products valorization; biorefinery high value added products
Project Synopsis
This PhD research will consist of implementing novel packages (fully compostable) based on the use of the Cellulose Nanoparticles (CNs) isolated from the cellulose, which is abundantly available in waste materials (wood pulp, cotton linter …) and by-products (rice and soy husks…). Owing to the biodegradability and unique gas barrier& mechanical properties of the CNs, those bio-based packages might be used for food shelf-life extension shaping the food quality& safety with concomitant environmental and economic expectations in a real circular economy in food packaging. However, to make that project possible and effective, two main drawbacks have to be sorted out. Firstly, the high tendency of the Cellulose Nanoparticles to swell in presence of humidity is detrimental to the gas barrier properties and secondly, the CNs are not heat sealable to form multi-layers’ packages. A couple of solutions retained plausible have been investigating such as an attempt to modify the CNs surface into more hydrophobic structure for increasing the nanocrystals functionalities to be coated onto either external film side or between two plastic films and promoting their potential mixing with adhesives.
Project keywords
food packaging, biopolymers, shelf life, gas barrier, sustainability, compostability
Contacts
Tel. (+39) 0250316661, (+39)3927251489
Collaborations
Sapici Spa: Dr. Luca Zanetti, Dr. Attilio Borlenghi
Nature Plast: Dr. G. Lebouteiller
Tecknopackaging: Dr. Lidia Garcia
Goglio North Europe: Dr. Claus Berend
Dept “Multiscale Biobased Materials”Grenoble INP Grenoble Institute of Technology–Pagora: Dr. Julien BRAS
Université de Bordeaux: Dr. Veronique Coma
University of Bologna: Dr. Marco Giacinti
Sponsor
Fellowship sponsor: Funding from Fast Track H2020 Project BIOCOMPLACK, eco-friendly food packaging with enhanced barrier properties. H2020-FTIPilot-2015-1
Project sponsor: BIOCOMPLACK, eco-friendly food packaging with enhanced barrier properties. H2020-FTIPilot-2015-1
Updated:
[…] Ghislain Fotie, PhD student of the Food Systems PhD programme (Università degli Studi di Milano), was awarded with a certificate of merit for the poster presented in the session “Emerging Food Technology for Shelf-life Extension” of the “8th Shelf Life International Meeting” (SLIM 2017; 1-3 November 2017, Bangkok, Thailand), entitled: Effectiveness of Cellulose Nanocrystals (CNCs) Application as Bio-Based Oxygen Barrier for Shelled Walnuts Shelf-life Extension (Ghislain Fotie, Sara Limbo and Luciano Piergiovanni). […]
[…] PhD student, Ghislain Fotie, has recently updated her […]