Reducing Food Wastage: Oluwatosin Popoola develops smart packaging materials from sustainable biodegradable materials

Popoola, a Nigerian researcher working in the Andreescu-BioSEM lab at Clarkson University is on the brink of innovating eco-friendly, active, and intelligent food packaging material.

Project significance. Approximately 1/3 of the foods produced globally get lost or wasted, many due to spoilage. On the other hand, pollution caused by the disposal of plastic packaging reaching landfills and food waste is a huge sustainability issue contributing to greenhouse gas emissions. Mr. Popoola’s project is to develop biocompatible materials and apply additive manufacturing methods for producing biodegradable films with the required stability, durability, and food preservation properties to increase the shelf-life of packaged food, and sustainability within the food chain as conventional packaging materials including polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) are not biodegradable and poses significant environmental risks. Presently, food packaging relies heavily on the use of non-degradable polymers, mainly plastics.

Groundbreaking Innovation

Mr. Popoola develops new nanocellulose-based biocompatible films with antimicrobial properties as packaging to replace non-degradable PET to extend the food shelf life and reduce the environmental footprint of packed food. To prepare his films, he uses a unique combination of nanocellulose and biopolymer linkers to create printable inks that can be uniformly deposited by 3D printing. The use of 3D printing to fabricate nanocellulose-based antimicrobial films for food packaging is a new and exciting direction for the manufacturing of functional biocompatible food packaging. Sustainable and environmentally friendly materials are essential for achieving the United Nations’ sustainable development goal to “ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns”. Mr. Popoola’s results to date demonstrate the high stability and durability of nanocellulose films, as well as antimicrobial action, making them effective materials for next-generation food packaging. The intelligent materials are also capable of monitoring the freshness level of packaged foods and communicating to consumers for informed decision-making.

Impact and Outcomes.

Mr. Popoola’s work demonstrates a unique approach to adding sustainability within the food chain. This research is important and timely as it highlights a new and innovative approach for addressing one of the most serious sustainability problems of global concern, that of plastic pollution due to non-degradable packaging, and the outrageous extent of food wastage.

Oluwatosin has presented his discoveries multiple times at notable international, national, and state professional conferences, including the NYSPI symposium (Binghamton 2023); American Chemical Society national conferences (Chicago 2022 & New Orleans 2024), Green Chemistry and Engineering Conference (Atlanta 2024), Materials and Nanomaterials International E-conference 2023 and many others.

Collaborations and Governmental support

In the quest to proffer sustainable solutions to plastic pollution and outrageous food wastage, the New York State government through the Pollution Prevention Institute (NYSP2I) facilitated the research collaboration of research teams from four top universities in the state, Oluwatosin Popoola plays the leading role in the team from Clarkson University and won the competitive $42,000 research grant.