Résumé
There is a growing trend for governmental efforts to promote health benefits of fresh foods, despite their short shelf life. Beyond respect of the chill chain, modified atmosphere is an efficient way to delay senescence and spoilage without using controversial preservatives compounds. Modified atmosphere packaging (MAP) for fresh produce relies on modification of the atmosphere inside the package in order to extend food shelf life and is achieved by the interplay of two processes: (1) the transfer of gases through the packaging and (2) the respiration of the product. MAP can be achieved by matching the film permeation rate with the respiration rate of respiring products. There is a wealth of published information on MAP but a lack of systematic treatment of the data that can provide information to designers and users on which film to use for particular purposes and targets. This approach is especially important for developing biodegradable packaging because of the limited barrier properties of most of them that could be either turned out into an asset to extend shelf life of respiring foods. Mathematical models have been developed (such as www.tailorpack.com) to design passive MAP. Such numerical tools simplify the package design steps by allowing predicting in advance the required window of packaging permeability for maintaining the quality and safety of the packed food. In addition to the gas permeation properties, the design of biodegradable packaging for fresh foods must take into account numerous other factors such as the cost, availability, potential contaminants of raw materials, process ability, preferences of consumer, waste management constraints, etc. In the EcoBioCap project, knowledge engineering method and tools are designed to store, share and use information regarding packaging material and to solve the dilemma of multi-criteria demands. Databases gathering most of the relevant information as regard fresh producer and packaging material are currently developed and used in connexion with the Tailorpack software. A specific methodology has been developed to query those databases when user's preferences are bipolar (i.e., express both constraints and wishes about the desired result). Results are then completely ordered with respect to these bipolar preferences, giving priority to constraints over wishes. This approach has permitted to build a Decision Support System for designing biodegradable packaging for fresh produces. This decision making tool will be useful for the development of new added-value materials for food packaging application from locally available and poorly valorised solid by-products and liquid effluents.