Transforming the food packaging ecosystem with EIT Food

0:00Welcome back to the Serial Entrepreneur, I'm your host Anna Wood. Thanks to EU funding, EIT Food provides dedicated support for startups as they develop, validate and scale their innovations through its flagship program, the EIT Food Accelerator Network. This support is enabling pioneering startups to address one of today's most pressing environmental crises. Every year, the world produces over 400 million tonnes of plastic, half of it designed for single use and the problem is only growing with global plastic production projected to increase several fold in the coming decades. The founders you'll hear from in today's episode are tackling one of the greatest environmental challenges of our time, the overuse of plastic and its impact on both our planet and our health.

0:49These entrepreneurs aren't just building businesses, they're developing breakthrough solutions with a potential for real scalable impact. We're excited for you to meet them. Hello everyone, welcome to the podcast today. Would you each be able to introduce yourselves? Hi, I'm Liz. I'm a CEO of CarbonCell and our company makes a low-carbon foam material for use in replacing things like expanded polystyrene, expanded polypropylene and other types of foam materials. Hi, I'm Françoise, co-founder and CEO of Packed to Earth. We're a Barcelona-based impact company and we specialize in robust materials made from plants, minerals and side streams to replace fossil plastic and specifically we focus on high barrier home compostable materials.

1:43Hi, I'm Juliette and I look after the accelerator program for EIT food and we focus on supporting startups in sustainable packaging solutions. Great, so to begin this podcast I kind of wanted to give a bit of context to the entire subject. So my first question is why is sustainable packaging such a critical topic today? Yeah well at present we have more than 400 million tons of plastic being produced and sadly only, well most of it is used for packaging, 40 % is just used for packaging and only 9 % of plastic waste is recycled. So we have quite a doomed future with plastic waste that's unfortunately finding itself in our land, our oceans, and most of it is in landfills and incinerated.

2:36Only a small percentage gets recycled. So really that's why it's such an important topic. We've got new PPWR packaging waste regulations coming out, which is making sure that there are going to be new regulations to reduce the plastic in packaging and also to look at new solutions like alternative materials and also make a lot more pressure for companies to really make sure that they fully recycle packaging. However, we also know that is an issue as when you are recycling, you still have to add more plastic. So you never really get plastic out of the cycle. Did anyone else have anything to add?

3:27Yeah, I think from our perspective, we believe that not only is this a sustainability issue, but just as importantly, it's a human health and fertility issue. So since the 1970s, human fertility rates have declined by 50%, 5-0%. And one of the major contributors to that is the endocrine disruptors and other components that are used as additives in fossil-based plastic. And not only that, but there are a total of 80 highly hazardous toxins that have been found in human bodies that come from plastic packaging, particularly on food items. and of course we each unfortunately have around seven grams of microplastics just in our brains let alone in the rest of our bodies and when I used to explain this I think everyone just thought I was a little bit nuts but now the PPWR is actually has actually recognized that particularly forever chemicals so known as PFAS but also bisphenols are hazardous and they're very significantly restricting their use, particularly in food contact materials from August 2026, which is going to make it almost impossible to use recycled fossil plastic as an alternative, particularly in contact with food in packaging.

4:48And I think this is critical because whereas not everyone believes in climate change, not everyone's worried about the environment, almost everyone is worried about their own health and about the health of their friends and family. Yeah, I would echo that that is an interesting story that we've seen be really compelling to investors and in talking to other companies working in this space, particularly in the political climate where in the US climate change is no longer a huge buzzword for investment. people are still receptive to some of these stories around human health impacts. I mean, they should be receptive to both stories, in my opinion, but this is becoming more and more important for stakeholders around the world.

5:36And I think that human health aspect is a really compelling reason if you don't need any other reason to start to change. So I think some of this has already been covered in my next question, but it's going to be what are some of the key environmental and health consequences that have been linked to the plastic waste in food packaging? Francoise, did you want to begin? Sure. Well, the thing is, the fossil plastic in contact with our foods is causing contamination for humans in two main ways. One is the microplastics and nanoplastics that we are inhaling and ingesting, not only because we eat them or we breathe them in from our polyester clothing or whatever it is, but also because some of the other animals and fish that we eat have already ingested themselves microplastics and nanoplastics.

6:32And so when we eat the fish, for example, we're also consuming the nanoplastics and microplastics that they already had lodged in their bodies. So that's one way in which we are getting contaminated by the fossil-based plastic. But another way is through the toxins. There are approximately 16 ,000 additives that are used in fossil-based plastic, and a very high percentage of those leach into our food. And as I say, 80 of them have been found to be highly hazardous and to be inside human bodies on a large scale. Some of the things that this causes well from the microplastics lodged in our brain There's a very strong correlation that's been scientifically demonstrated in a number of different studies with dementia So that would be one thing but also the endocrine disruptors for example the phthalates and the bisphenols present in fossil-based plastic they Are causing problems with fertility, but also they're causing things like obesity and diabetes I would just add that thinking beyond human health impacts, there's new research showing the impact of these types of microplastics and contamination on larger ecosystems and non-human life.

7:52So that extends to photosynthesis of plants. There's evidence that has come out showing that these types of microplastic contamination can inhibit photosynthesis in both land-based plants and algal species. And that affects, obviously, productivity of ecosystems. And then from more of an animal perspective, there's evidence showing, and we've seen this with, because we deal with polystyrene waste specifically, which often ends up in ocean ecosystems, that those contaminants can disrupt the water column. So the activity of different types of species of microorganisms in that water column, which affects the broader health of oceans.

8:41So I think there's human health impacts, but then there's broader ecosystem impacts, which, of course, affect us because they have to do with our food production systems. But in thinking about the planet more broadly than humans, there's larger health related issues. Yeah, and just to add to that as well, so at the weekends, I'm an organic farmer, olives and almonds and things like that. And so we have a particular interest as well in agricultural applications for our materials. And one of the more horrific stories I've heard is that the mulching films that are typically used to help to stop weeds growing around crops, some of the farmers are actually ploughing those fossil-based plastic mulching films into the soil and that's causing significant soil degradation that also affects the health of the crops that come later.

9:38Now of course there are some biodegradable compostable alternatives out there but they're still hard to find and not used very frequently. So what has been the impact of current EU regulations such as PPWR and single-use plastics derivatives? Sure. I mean, I think this has already been touched on a little bit, but it's driving massive change in terms of brands and companies knowing that they need to find alternatives now because this regulation is upcoming. So there's greater receptivity to evaluating different solutions. However, I think some of the regulation introduces uncertainty in terms of what will be punished or rewarded in future.

10:25And I think that also has been challenging for innovators because we as startups work on a much shorter time scale than large companies. And so there is a tendency when faced with regulatory uncertainty to just sort of want to wait and see how things play out. And that means that we're in a difficult position in time where we need to be, we as small companies need to be making sales and proving traction. But many large companies just want to sort of hold their fire and see where the regulation goes. So I think there's drawbacks and there's benefits. It's obviously driving change, but the problem with regulation is that it's viewed as a risk for large companies.

11:17So that can be a challenging system to navigate. Do anyone else have anything to add? So I think the PPWR, which was approved in February 2025, I think it is very interesting because on the one hand, the headlines, if you like, the big titles on that PPWR make it look like recycled plastic is the way to go, recycled fossil plastic. But someone very smart in the EU who wanted to do good for the world did introduce these clauses around limiting, significantly limiting the use of PFAS and bisphenols, particularly in contact with food in packaging and also other sensitive items. And those two things are basically contradictory because all of the recycled fossil plastic is contaminated with PFAS and bisphenols, with the potential exception of some closed-loop recycling like RPET, for example, used for bottles.

12:19So basically what that means is that if you can't use recycled fossil plastic, but you're being told that all of your materials have to be either recyclable or compostable by 2030, then the only option that's left there is to use compostable materials. There's also a clause in the PPWR that says that if you can demonstrate significant environmental benefit from using compostables, then it's allowable to use compostables. and if you ask me of course that means that you know there's always significant environmental benefit from using compostables but maybe that's not quite what they had in mind and I would say that's where you know it brings in the element of confusion that Elizabeth was mentioning earlier there is there are definitely big gray areas we do think that it's positive that some compostable items have been mandated like tea bags for example but obviously it's a very small number of items, but at least it is signaling to the market, hey, there are some uses where, you know, it's just a no-brainer to use compostables.

13:27I was asked the other day, you know, if that list of mandated items were to be expanded, what would be the next ones that I would add to the list? And I would really go for the ones where everyone in the industry knows that they cannot possibly be recycled ever. Things like, you know, multi-layer high barrier materials where you can't separate the layers for recycling into the individual streams. You know, there are things like courier bags that have black ink all on one side, at least in a lot of countries. Those can't be recycled. They go straight to landfill. There are a number of items where it just, yeah, it's a no-brainer because they are definitely going to end up in landfill so why not make them compostable.

14:14Okay so kind of moving on to the EIT Food Accelerator Network, could you walk us through how it works and what makes the program unique compared to other startup accelerators? So the EIT Food Accelerator otherwise known as EITFAN is a European wide program that supports early stage startups who are looking to make the food system healthier, more sustainable and more resilient. So there are currently six accelerator hubs across Europe. They each focus on a specific theme, so from alternative proteins to sustainable agriculture. And the program that both Liz and Francois has been on is the accelerator that focuses on sustainable packaging solutions.

15:00So it's a program that runs for six months from May to October. It's a hybrid format, so it combines online mentoring and we also do three in-person sessions that last about three days. I'd say that really what makes this accelerator kind of more a bit more different to others is that it's very much we bring together mission-driven entrepreneurs who are tackling such important problems as plastic waste that are linked to our health and environment and are really looking to well bringing in these innovations to market and so what we try to create is a collaborative community around them entrepreneurship can be a lonely journey so what I try and do is really build a space where founders can share learn and grow together and they are supported by exports mentors and industry partners who are both experienced but also human and very compassionate and generous with their time.

16:01In the accelerator we also bring in a couple of companies, so like last year we had Unilever Cargill and the Spanish company called Hijos de Rivera and they are actively involved in selecting the startups and also defining potential user cases together. And I'd say this engagement is key because it helps the startups design solutions that fit the market needs and it also helps the corporates access innovation they wouldn't normally see. Through the program every year there's a couple of pilots that come through and when if these pilots are successful they can lead to commercial contracts and really support the product to get to market.

16:47In the programme we also have a part where the startups can win a fund of up to 50 ,000 euros so both PactoEarth and CarbonCell have won the fund and this is to use basically to do any further technology validation or research or development with a research institute and this can also be helpful for securing pilot customers or accelerating a specific part of their technology. But really, I mean, in summary, I'd really say it's very much the human element of the program. It's really about people. So it's really about creating a community and a network that can support these entrepreneurs in a tough and long journey of getting their product to market.

17:45As startups that have been through it, do you guys have any opinions and views on kind of what makes it different to others? I think the connection with the corporate partners is really strong. so getting insight from the corporate counterpart you know often we work in the startup world of innovators and we sell to large companies but really understanding how they work and how then to work with them is a really important part of the accelerator that made it different from my perspective yeah I would echo that the the relationship with the corporates really makes a difference. As a startup, the thing you need more than anything else, even more than investment, is revenues.

18:30And the revenues are going to come from clients. And sometimes it's really hard as a startup to open the door to a client, particularly a large-scale client. And through EIT Fan, they've opened those doors for us and made it a lot easier for us to engage with those clients and to start to generate those revenues. Also, the award that we won through EITFAN, which is actually an investment in Packed to Earth, was very helpful because it's helped us to work on a new grade of our injection material that can be used for caps, like water bottle caps and other kinds of caps, which is one of the most common items that ends up in the environment.

19:11So for us, it's been fantastic. that's helped us to widen our portfolio and to get to market with a new very high volume solution fantastic so moving on to the next part of the podcast is very much focused on the two startups so to begin i want to ask what is the founding story of pack to earth pack to earth was really born because uh glenn who's the co-founder and also my personal partner and I, we love trail running, we love long distance hiking, and we were constantly seeing empty sports gel wrappers and snack bar wrappers on the ground. We're fortunate enough to live in a protected natural area in Spain, and we just saw this rubbish, plastic rubbish, all over the place.

19:58And originally we thought, well, wouldn't it be great to create a sports nutrition brand that were wrapped in some kind of material that, you know, if we can't get people to change their behavior, which obviously would be the ideal thing, but if you can't get them to change their behavior and they throw something on the ground, at least try and make it disappear, you know, completely compost and disappear. And we thought, well, surely someone's already invented this, and so we'll just buy it from a third party and we'll use it on this sports nutrition brand we want to create. But then when we really started looking into it, we found that particularly for products that were semi-liquid or liquid, like an energy gel, for example, that needed a long shelf life.

20:39No one had actually come up with any kind of home-compostable material, which is the kind of material you need for it to biodegrade when it's left outside in the countryside. It also needs to be soil biodegradable. So we thought, well, neither of us are chemists, but it's not a problem. You know, we're stubborn people. We'll just figure out a way. And so we started hiring packaging engineers and chemists into our team. We started working with a Spanish research center, ITENE at the time, to start to develop prototypes. And once we had those prototypes, we went to the European Union, and we were fortunate enough to get 1.9 million euros in a Horizon 2020 grant.

21:25And the rest is history. From there, we really started to build on those initial innovations. We parked the whole sports nutrition thing and decided to focus exclusively on packaging. And we set Pactworth up as a standalone company in January 2022. The idea had actually originated in 2015, and we'd got our very first grant in 2017. So it's been quite a long road to get to this point, but things are really starting to take off. and we're very happy that we have had the opportunity to make it this far and that it seems like we're going to get to do something real good for the planet and for human health moving forward.

22:06Amazing. And moving on to Carbon Cell, what is also the founding story? Yeah, so we started our company while we were researching low-carbon materials at Imperial College and Royal College of Art in London. we were looking at bio-derived carbon so it's a it's a material called biochar that we use which actually usually comes from agricultural waste it's a carbon sequestration technology it basically fixes carbon that plants trap during their lifespan into a format that's very stable and we were really interested in this material as a technical additive in different types of industrial replacements.

22:51People have used it in cements, plasters, all sorts of other materials to improve their performance and lower the carbon footprint. And because it's very lightweight and very porous, we thought that foams would be a really interesting class of material to look at the application of this type of carbon in. And that's where the company started, was with research to investigate that manufacturing principle and then validate that the materials we got out actually perform well and then from there we got enough lab validation to get early grant funding and set up as a business and focus more and understand really okay we've got a foam but then where our foams bought and sold in the marketplace amongst all of the industrial applications where the ones where it's really critical to start replacing plastics and to lower carbon footprints.

23:49Yeah, so that's the backstory. Elizabeth, do you already have your foam ready for clients to purchase? So we're still scaling up our production at the minute. Right now we can produce small samples, both, you know, small in terms of dimension, but also small volume samples in our own workshop. But we are currently installing a continuous production line, which will do extrusion compounding. And that enables us to get larger volumes of the material to start fulfilling commercial scale orders. Hopefully soon. I might have a client for you. Oh, amazing. Yeah, I love that. Yeah, email me after this.

24:33I'd love to chat. That's amazing. So what specific applications are both of you looking towards? At Pack to Earth, what we're doing is we're replacing the high barrier materials, high barrier plastic that's used in food packaging, but also in other applications like in agriculture, for example. Now, it may seem like high barrier home compostable materials are a bit of a niche application, but it's actually quite the opposite. over 50 % of the plastic packaging that's used in supermarkets, in supermarket products, is high barrier material. So by focusing on this area, we have the potential to replace over 50 % of the packaging in supermarkets.

25:19And for example, in agriculture, because at Pactworth we have both a flexible film and an injection material, we're able to make a lot of different kinds of application for agriculture from mulching films through to pheromone traps for example which are used millions and millions and millions every year even just in spain and yeah we're also working on other developments for example to be able to make full-blown bottles for for water and for other beverages so all kinds of different containers anything high barrier and for us there's a broad range of applications for foam that we're targeting everything from insulation materials in the built environment to automotive composites but within the food sector the primary uses for foam still are in thermal protection so they're in the cold chain essentially they they protect goods that need thermal stability during transit.

26:23So that's where we focused from a food sector perspective. We are thinking about food more as a broader ecosystem, also looking at agriculture. So the material that we make is compostable as well, and biochar has been used as a soil amendment for thousands of years. So there are some applications for plant pots and seedlings that go back further into the value chain upstream for producers of food rather than consumers. So another question to you both is what makes your technology different from other solutions in the market? What makes Pactworth's solutions different from others on the market is specifically the high barriers to water vapor, to oxygen and to grease that our materials have And what that means is that you can package products with a long shelf life in those materials, even if they're semi-liquid or liquid.

27:21So dry, semi-liquid and liquid, we can do the full range. No one else on the market is able to do that at the moment. You either have direct competitors who are able to package only dry products, because typically a lot of the competing materials are water-soluble. So if you try and package semi-liquids or liquids in them for a long duration, they disintegrate. Or some of our other competitors are able to package semi-liquids and liquids, but they typically only get a super short shelf life, maybe even only a few weeks, and often they need refrigerated conditions. Whereas Packed With, you can use our materials to package products with over a 12-month shelf life.

28:05and yet when you put the material in a composter or it ends up outdoors or in landfill, it completely compost, doesn't leave behind any kind of toxin, PFAS, microplastic, so it just leaves a clean soil that new plants can grow in. In terms of what makes our material different, we have a very low to even negative carbon footprint. It really depends on the specific product and the application and the end of life, But we can, in certain cases, offer low carbon to negative carbon footprint. It's a significant reduction in carbon footprint, even from plastics. So that's one element of the material.

28:47We are currently, formulations are home compostable. So there's a significant benefit for waste. Foams as a class of material are very difficult to collect and recycle because there's just not enough material to make the economics work on collections. And additionally, they often blow away or drift away from waste management. And that's why they end up in ecosystems. So by being compostable, we are eliminating the need or the issue around waste pollution as well. And additionally, our manufacturing methods are quite similar to existing plastics infrastructure. So it's a rapid molding process that requires heat similar in mechanism to how expanded polystyrene is currently made.

29:38And because of that, we can offer better scalability and unit economics than a lot of other materials out on the market. Yeah, I should have mentioned for packed worth as well, our materials are also very low in CO2. So typically you save two kilos of CO2 for every one kilo produced compared with fossil plastic. And our materials are home compostable as well. Amazing. So what challenges have both of you faced in getting to market? Well, I'd say the biggest challenge for Packed to Earth and probably for 99 % of startups has been raising investment, enough investment to be able to complete R &D and get the traction with the clients.

30:25We are fortunate in that we now have really strong VCs behind us with deep pockets and a strong commitment to pack to earth. So, you know, this has happened since July of this year. So we're feeling very fortunate. We're in a great position now to scale up. But yeah, investment has been number one. And number two has been getting clients to take the leap and to trust the startup to move to our packaging solution. You need brave clients who are willing to be the first and to trailblaze. But if they are willing to take that step, then of course, there's a big PR advantage for them as well. So it works for both of us.

31:08For us, investment is also one. In any of these sectors where you're dealing with fast-moving goods that are low-priced, there is a degree of scale that you need to achieve in order to really be viable in the market. and you can't just start like selling one or two items and then build a case for traction. So I think, and particularly when there's any sort of manufacturing involved, there's a significant like inflection needed in order to really take off from a commercial perspective. And getting to that point with investors these days is really difficult in the current financial environment. So I think that's definitely been one of the challenges.

31:50I think also we touched upon it earlier, but uncertainty regarding regulation has been a challenge for us in understanding, particularly around end of life, how are compostables going to be classed in certain different categories? What are different corporate perspectives on that? And then if you're operating in multiple regions, what are the differences in regionality to that? That's been a challenge in getting to market and a lot of the uncertainty. and maybe also re-education that needs to happen because of early, maybe not intentional, but greenwashing that happened early on in transitions to sustainable plastics around, you know, we have to do a lot of education around when we say it's compostable, everyone immediately is like, oh, but is it really?

32:40And like, that's a good question to ask, but to have to answer it and be like, yes, it is, constantly just shows that there's trepidation in the market that we have to overcome due to sort of early mistakes or, you know, nobody was acting with ill will, but early mistakes that happened in the marketplace years back. Yeah. And I think there's also a lot of confusion between industrial compostable and home compostable. You know, PLA is the most common industrial compostable material and you know it is better than fossil plastic but the thing is that if it ends up in landfill or outdoors which is what's going to happen to almost 80 percent of it it's it's going to leave microplastics behind when it when it composts because it only completely composts if it reaches high temperatures like 55 degrees centigrade for a prolonged period of time and it's only going to reach those conditions in an industrial composter so if it doesn't end up specifically there, it's not going to happen.

33:41So that's been a point of confusion, I would say, in the market as well. With the challenges that you have stated in mind, how did EITFAN help you navigate the challenges? Well, I think one of the key benefits is that when you do a program like EITFAN, you are forced to stop answering emails and stop fighting fires and doing your day-to-day stuff and just stop and think and that is very powerful in itself and of course eitfan offers great support from coaches and mentors who really help to guide you along the path and to make sure that you're focusing on the on the right priorities yeah i think for us it's also getting the perspective from industry and in understanding the differing perspectives in industry directly from corporate partners was helpful because there's no point in selling to someone who's just not on the same page as you or doesn't have the same priorities.