Evaluation and optimization of contaminated seal performance for food packaging – EVOCOSEAL

Funding logo of BMWi

The integrity of packaging is an absolute prequisite for food safety. Studies have shown that more than a third of consumer product packaging has quality deficiencies. Moreover, in 58% of all such cases it is contamination of the seal which is the main reason for the deficient packaging.

The objective of the EVOCOSEAL project is to develop a systematic model and to derive guidelines from this for optimizing sealing processes and hence seal quality, with consideration of different types of contamination. The challenge here is to understand the interplay between the properties of the contaminants / substrate materials and the processing parameters for different sealing methods.

The Fraunhofer IVV Dresden will investigate sealing processes on standard commercial packaging materials in the presence of solid and liquid contaminants. Both widely used technologies such as heat contact sealing and ultrasonic sealing and also more future-oriented laser sealing will be studied.

The guidelines, which will be drawn up at the end of the project, will enable food producers to reduce product and packaging losses and to optimize their sealing processes and hence increase the safety of their food products. The guidelines will also benefit manufacturers of packaging machinery and packaging materials by providing high quality information for advising customers about relevant contamination issues and the development of special sealing tools and materials.

Project term: 2016 to 2018
Project management
/project funding:
Federation of Industrial Research Associations AiF (via the Industrievereinigung für Lebensmitteltechnologie und Verpackung e. V. - IVLV);
Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) 
CORNET project