Helping to create cleaner, greener food packaging

A SMALL idea can make a big difference. This is a common theme which has been running through this series on the female winners of the Sprint Awards at UCC.

This is certainly true of Shivani Pathania’s innovative idea. It involves a seemingly tiny change in packaging, but has the potential to both enhance the productivity and reduce the waste of small and medium scale food businesses in Ireland.

Dr Pathania’s life story carries a similar message. Throughout our chat she emphasises how the daily support of her family, the small nudges of encouragement, helped her to do big things. She credits her childhood family, and later her husband Puneet Parmar, for her capacity to carry out innovative work in creating cleaner, greener food packaging.

Trailblazer

The impressive researcher grew up in a small village in India, where she completed a Masters and Ph.D in food science before moving to Europe.

“There were no independent women where I grew up, but my family gave me the freedom to study whatever I wanted to study and take ownership of my decisions,” she said.

I am where I am today because my family supported me. And then my husband supported me. My father has passed away, but I like to think he would be very proud of me today.

Dr Pathania first landed in Portugal, working as a post doc researcher, before finding herself in Teagasc at the Dairy Processing Technology Centre in Moorepark.

Since March, 2018, she has worked in the Food Industry Development department in Teagasc. Working with food businesses has had a huge impact on her and guides her current research.

“In this role, because I’m engaging with industries, more than 100 consumer industries, I identified a gap in the market. I could see that small and medium food businesses face a huge issue with food waste and that packaging solutions at that scale weren’t as good, as efficient or affordable as it should be. That’s where my idea came from, just observing the realities on the ground.”

More than 90% of the food businesses in Ireland are small and medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs), and, as Dr Pathania discovered, they face multiple challenges such as food waste reduction, operational efficiency, and production automation. Some 68% of SMEs are working towards reducing packaging use.

She knew that packaging could be better and soon came up with a clean, green packaging technology that could provide an eco-friendly, sustainable packaging solution for gas-flushed ready-to-eat/heated (RTÉ/RTH) products.

She tells me that it is the size of a microwave to which a gas cylinder can be attached. It is user-friendly; a couple of pushes of buttons and the job is done.

“Our semi-automatic machine features a novel nozzle design that can introduce modified atmosphere (MA) into the plastic pots, preserving and extending the shelf life of the food products, without the use of plastic film/sleeve.”

To us common consumers, it is a simple change. Let’s say we buy a small tub of hummus. Well, instead of removing a lid and then a sleeve, we would only remove the lid. But this small difference makes packaging far easier and less wasteful.

Smaller companies in particular currently use the plastic film to seal in a gas mix to preserve the product. Dr Pathania’s technology means the gas mix can be created without the sleeve. It is chemical-free, sustainable and still extends the shelf life of the product.

Next Steps

Having conceived the idea, Dr Pathania began by looking for an engineer to turn it into a reality.

Ciara McDonagh and Miriam Walsh at Teagasc encouraged her to apply for a Start Fund award to develop the technology. Miriam was also the person to put her in touch with Myriam Cronin and the UCC Sprint programme.

“Miriam Walsh recognised that I was in a great position. I was in contact with industry but I also have a research background. She recognised the potential for a business in what I was doing.

“The SPRINT programme completely changed my mind-set in terms of business. A huge thanks to Myriam Cronin that I now understand the value of pitching. She identified my needs and offered valuable suggestions throughout the Sprint journey. 

I know what lies ahead and I am aware of it. During the programme we got access to a lot of entrepreneurs and they helped us to understand the journey. I know now that it is difficult but you still have to keep going. You have to do it.

She explains that, although she worked with people in the food industry before, that work was about helping them with the technological side of things. SPRINT offered her a whole other insight.

Following the programme, she now feels she has a firm grasp of the whole life cycle of a product, and how a company functions best on a business level.

“I used to help companies identify technology to develop product to scale and to eliminate any technological hindrances. My help was always technical, not business orientated. But now I understand the complete picture, what they go through overall.”

This has had a wonderful effect on her.

“I feel more confident. I feel more informed. The first time when I was asked to give a statement about my product I struggled. But now there is a huge contrast. Academia is so different because you must give every single detail and really look very intensively at everything.

“In business, you also have to cover everything, but you only have a sentence or two in which to grab people’s attention.”

What is key, says the astute academic and businessperson, is not to bore anyone, to generate their interest.

Research and Technology

Dr Pathania is keen to explain the product in more detail and to elaborate on just how significant a change it could bring about in the industry. “My technology will gas flush the product. This means putting a modified atmosphere into the product, preserving and extending the life of the product.”

The advantage, she highlights, is that this technology is not usually available to small companies.

“Food waste is a huge problem, there is so much methane from food waste. My technology reduces food waste, reduces plastic waste. Most companies use a plastic sleeve to modify the atmosphere. I don’t use a sleeve, I use the lid itself.”

The fact that the gas mix is chemical-free means that the air can go back to the environment. The technology offers a solution that addresses these issues and aligns with the United Nations’ Sustainability Development Goal 12 and EU plastic Strategy on zero landfill waste by 2025.

Future Plans

Dr Pathania plans to target the Irish market first. She will then look to the global market. She is certain that her home country will also benefit from the technology – even more so, in fact.

“Convenience food is gaining momentum in India, but due to the temperatures, the shelf life is shorter there than in Ireland. Anything that can extend shelf life whilst being chemical-free is going to be welcomed there.”

She hopes it will be on the market in Ireland in two to three years.

At the very end of our chat, Dr Pathania returns to the importance of family in everything she does. This time round she wants to mention her daughter.

“My daughter made me realise I am stronger than I ever thought I was. Our daughter was born during Covid times, we never imagined that we would be able to raise a child without family support. Our daughter has truly transformed us into proud and dedicated parents.”