Thanks to the EU initiative called BIOCOPAC, Europeans may soon be getting their tomatoes in a container that’s made out of them.

Thanks to the EU initiative called BIOCOPAC, Europeans may soon be getting their tomatoes in a container that’s partly made out of tomatoes themselves.

Scientists are now hard at work creating less expensive and more sustainable metal food packaging.

Specific to this challenge is that developers make a container coating that uses the excess tomato skins resulting from the industrial process of tomato canning.

In addition to the finish being food safe as it will be used both on the inside and outside of the cans, it must be cost-effective and environmentally friendly.

At this stage, the trick is figuring out a way to extract the skin’s waxy substance, cutin, in a way that’s both environmentally sound and lends itself to the production of a lacquer.

It also needs to be consistent with products currently on the market, compatible with the industrial coating methods already in place, and financially competitive.

Inspiration for the project came in great part from the need of smaller manufacturers and packagers to remain competitive in the industry.

The BIOCOPAC enterprise is being overseen by packaging businesses, consumers, and representatives from 6 countries.