Résumé
Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) are gaining increasing interest in the biopolymer market due to theirpromising properties such as biodegradability in natural madia, biocompatibility and vesatility ofprocessing.. PHAs offer potential sustainable substitutes for oil-based thermoplastics, particularly in thepackaging sector which represents 40% of plastic demand. However, their high production costs, mainlydue to the high raw material prices, is still limiting their industrialization. Mechanical recycling, a thermo-mechanical eco-friendly process is able to reduce PHA’s cost, by extending the material life. For foodcontact applications, beyound the reprocessing (reshaping) of the material, it is mandatory to go through adecontamination step that guarentees the safety of the recyclates. [1]. Multi-reprocessing of PHA does notappear to affect its properties [2, 3]. However the decontamination efficiency of PHA, and its impact on theproperties of recyclates , has never been evaluated so far.The objective of this work is to study the opportunities and limitations of potential mechanical recyclingof PHA for food contact application. reprocessing and decontamination steps were studied separately, inorder to evaluate their respective impacts on the recycled polymer quality. First, decontamination wasperformed at different time/temperature couples, using a wide rage of polar and non-polar surrogates.The decontamination efficiency was compared to food safety assessment.