Brazilian technology increases shelf life of food

Company obtains registration to commercialize a bactericidal material applied to plastic packaging in the United States. MIT consulting firm prepares entry of Nanox’s product into the U.S. market.

By Elton Alisson

Agência FAPESP – Nanox has obtained a license from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to sell a bactericidal material for application in plastic food packaging. The company was created based on a research group from the Multidisciplinary Center for Development of Ceramic Materials (CMDMC) – a FAPESP Research, Innovation and Dissemination Center (CEPID). 

The Global Entrepreneurship Lab (G-LAB) at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)’s Sloan Business School is also aiding the company for the first time. Since September, Nanox has received consulting services from students at the institution for the development of a business plan to prepare for the company’s debut in the U.S. market. In January, the student team visited the company’s headquarters in São Carlos, in the interior of São Paulo, to conclude the work. 

With a business plan in hand, Nanox intends to open a subsidiary in the United States and to attract investors to help put the subsidiary together. “We have already talked with representatives at some investment funds in Silicon Valley to help develop the entire structural side of the subsidiary that we intend to open in the United States,” commented Luiz Gustavo Pagotto Simões, the director of Nanox, to Agência FAPESP.

According to the researcher, the bactericidal material that Nanox intends to commercialize in the United States is the most recent application of a line of inorganic antimicrobials, named “Nanoxclean,” which began to be developed in 2005.

Through a project supported by the Program for Innovative Research in Small Companies (PIPE), the company, which had the name Science Solution at the time, initially produced nanostructured particles based on silver with bactericidal, antimicrobial and autosterilizing properties.

The material was applied to the surface of metals on medical and dental instruments, such as tweezers, scalpels and drills, and used in hair dryers, water purifiers, paints, resins and ceramics. Beginning in 2007, the company began to extend the application of the product to plastics used to wrap and conserve food, following certification from Brazil’s National Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa) in 2012 for this purpose.

“The technology that we developed to put silver in a ceramic matrix and later add this material to a polymer has also resulted in patents in Brazil and in the United States,” explained Simões.

According to Simões, the plastic wraps with inorganic antimicrobial action that were developed by his company increase the shelf life of food packaged with the product. This packaging allows food to remain fresh for consumption for much longer. “If stored in packaging using the bactericidal material, a product that lasted six months, for example, would then have a shelf life of eight to ten months,” he stated. 

The material, according to Simões, could be applied to any type of plastic packaging for food – from supermarket bags to stiffer plastic, such as margarine tubs – with a very low increase in cost compared with conventional polymers.

To begin commercialization of the product in the United States, Nanox is currently conducting tests with five potential clients, among which are a major supermarket chain and a packaging manufacturer.

The company is the only manufacturer of the product in Brazil. In international markets, however, Nanox is facing competition from Japanese industries that initially developed the technology, in addition to German concerns, which are leaders in silver-based products.

Nanox, however, developed a technology that utilizes between 10 and 15 times less silver than its competitors, while maintaining the transparency of the plastic – an attribute considered fundamental to the product.

Expansion of the market

Nanox intends to obtain certification for using the product in the United States for other applications, such as health. The process of registering a product with the FDA in the health arena is much more lengthy and complex than for food-related applications, requiring clinical trials to guarantee the safety of consumers.

“Our plan is to commercialize the product for food packaging in the U.S. market within three to five years and then to obtain certifications for application in catheters and ultrasound equipment, for example,” said Simões.

Nanox already exports to Mexico and Italy and has begun to enter the Chinese market. The company has also begun to increase its production scale over the past few years in order to implement and maintain its expansion and growth plan under phase 3 of the PAPPE/PIPE project. 

The company’s goal is to increase the production scale of its nanostructured antimicrobial products threefold, leaping from the current 10 kilograms per day to 100 kilograms per day. “We are testing diverse methodologies to increase our production scale,” said Simões.