Safe and sustainable food packaging

During this webinar the partners (including ESB) of the FitNESS 2.0 project will present to you the free platform and its contribution for life-long training of responsible professionals all along the value chain.

Main points discussed:

• Food packaging: from past to new challenges, a rapid evolution
• The FitNESS platform and its ongoing evolution
• Use of the FitNESS platform in the context of food engineering programs
• Exchange with participants

The European Green Deal and the new circular economy action plan are game-changers for food production and retailing. The food and drink industry is the largest manufacturing industry in the EU (EU Food Drink Industry Data and Trends 2019) and, therefore, a top contributor to Europe´s economy. Despite these bright results, the sector faces numerous challenges associated with insufficient preparedness and the lack of harmonized regulations and standards. Education programs should be reshaped to accelerate the transition to sustainable production and stimulate innovation, especially in new recovery infrastructures, open and closed-loop recycling, composting, biodegradability, food quality preservation, food loss minimization, supply chain optimization, new materials, new processing, and packaging strategies.

The free and interactive online content developed during the Erasmus+ project FitNESS offers a comprehensive curriculum on the conventional aspects of food packaging. The open-source platform FitNESS is the largest e-learning platform on food packaging globally (3 months of lectures are online). It is accessible without authentication, and anyone can duplicate it.

The ambition of the new FitNESS 2.0 project is to reach a broader audience in the food packaging value chain, from the chemical industry to recyclers, and to offer certified courses validated by online tests. In our experience, the non-centralized architecture of the FitNESS platform shared between universities and technical laboratories contributes to accelerating the digital transformation of education and training systems in the EU by:
- bridging education, research, and innovation,
- creating a global community on a particular topic instead of disciplines,
- offering new training paths for current and future professionals.

This webinar is intended to be interactive and you will be invited to give your point of view so that the new version of the platform meets your expectations as best as possible.