Award winning project aims to replace plastic seafood packaging
A team of researchers and aquaculture processors has worked together to develop a fully biodegradable, renewable packaging solution to replace traditional plastic packaging for seafood.
The project won $300,000 at a recent awards ceremony from Innovate BC for its promising materials solution. The newly designed packaging comes at a time when hundreds of millions of single-use plastic containers are used annually to ship seafood.
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One of Vancouver Island’s leading farmed salmon processors has teamed up with researchers at the University of Northern British Columbia (UNBC) to deliver new ways to package and ship seafood.
The project by the Campbell River-based Browns Bay Packing Company Ltd. and Dr. Hossein Kazemian involves the formulation of a renewable and fully biodegradable hybrid packaging solution.
“This is one of the most promising candidates for an alternative material to replace traditional plastics,” said Innovate BC, when granting the project $300,000 at a recent awards ceremony in Vancouver.
Seven other research and development projects that are creating game-changing innovations were given a total $2,325,000 through Innovate BC’s Ignite program, which aims to accelerate the commercialization of biotech, cleantech, mining, agriculture, and forestry projects.
“Innovation is key in our business to ensure the continued sustainability of aquaculture on Vancouver Island,” said Dave Stover a co-owner and the CEO of Brown’s Bay Packing Company, which has been processing farm raised salmon since 1989.
“We live, work and play in the area where our business is located. We raise our families here and care deeply about the marine environment and that’s why this project is so important for us,” he told SeaWestNews.
Fabian Dawson, SeaWestNews, Oct 26, 2022.