Styria is Austrian’s apple cultivation hot spot. About 80% of the annual harvest (corresponding to about 130.000 tons) are harvested in this region. The majority of the apples – mainly new apple varieties as Golden Delicious, Gala or Idared - are cultivated in plantations. However, about 25% of the apples are grown in so-called meadow orchards. These meadow orchards represent an enormous pool for apple varieties – mainly old apple varieties (Maschanzker, Kronprinz Rudolf, Bohnapfel and many more) that have been traditionally grown there. In many cases these varieties show completely different properties than fruits from new varieties. Even though these varieties have been cultivated in this region for many decades, the flavour properties are not described. For most varieties, a molecular characterisation of the flavour compounds is lacking. Read more...

The aim of this project is to gain a fundamental understanding of the interdependence of transport mechanisms and the pore network of paper. Therefore, representative gases and organic compounds capable of gaseous transport are selected and measured to determine the pore network of paper and its transport-relevant properties. The used analytical techniques include migration cells and gas chromatographic based methods.

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Europe’s vision of a new circular economy regarding packaging materials aims to make all plastic packaging produced in the EU market reusable or recycled in a cost-effective manner by 2030. Subsequently, the development and deployment of highly efficient sorting procedures and recycling processes are needed to enable production of high-quality recycled products, as well as analytical strategies for their characterization and safety evaluation. The regulatory details were only lately published by the European Commission in its new regulation (EU) No. 2022/1616 on recycled plastic materials for food contact. It allows newly developed, non-authorized technologies and approaches, so-called ‘novel technologies’, to be deployed in the field and bring products to the market. One of the key points is to guarantee processes and materials that are safe to use for the consumer. This should be reached by comprehensive characterisation of the materials and processes. However, the regulation does not give a more detailed description on suitable methods and parameters for testing and monitoring of those. The main aim of this project is to develop an assessment strategy that generates the needed data for the approval of novel technologies and to guarantee consumer safety of the generated products for food contact according to regulation (EU) No. 2022/1616. Read more...

Poly- and perfluorinated alkyl substances (PFASs) have been intensively investigated in recent years because of their occurrence and importance in food packaging materials. PFASs are thermodynamically stable and highly resistant towards many forms of degradation. Their stability and water/lipid repellent properties makes them attractive for various applications, including in food contact materials (FCMs) of paper and board. However, these substances are also very persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic, and recently some PFASs have begun being regulated or phased out.

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Food contact materials are materials or articles that are considered to come into contact with food. They should not release substances into food that change the properties of the food or pose a potential risk for human health. Examples for FCMs include machinery to process food, kitchenware, tableware and packaging materials, (e.g. paper, board, and plastics) ¹.  The packaging should on the one hand protect the packed good from unwanted changes by e.g. air, light or oxygen and stop migration of unwanted substances from the environment or from the packaging itself (e.g. non-intentionally added substances (NIAS), mineral oil hydrocarbons…). On the other hand it should preserve the quality and taste of the food. Read more...

In recent years wood pellets have been investigated along the entire supply chain sustaining the high quality of the product wood pellet. Beside fuel characteristics also storage behaviour of wood pellets has been examined. Read more...

The compost bedded pack barn is an animal-friendly housing system for cattle. It consists of a large, open resting area, usually bedded with sawdust. The most critical success factor for managing a compost bedded pack barn (CDB) is providing a comfortable, dry resting surface for cows at all times. Read more...