Preservatives are used nowadays in a large number of cosmetic,  pharmaceutical, and food products. The most used are the parabens which are currently under revision in Europe. As consequence of evaluations of the existing safety data, the European Scientific Committees has recommended the reduction of the actual allowed contents and probably some of them will be restricted or forbidden in the cosmetic legislation in the near future.

In addition, there is a clear new trend of the consumers towards more natural products because of the negative publicity around parabens and other synthetic preservatives. All these needs have motivated the birth of the consortium named Actisopack.

Actisopack project consortium is based on a group of 5 SMEs, with expertise in cosmetics manufacture and packaging production, including Lameplast Group. Two research centres are involved in the project providing specific research capabilities. The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme managed by REA-Research Executive Agency, focused to promote excellence in research and innovation.

The project focuses on the development of active packaging solutions for reducing the levels of preservatives in cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, and foods with the same guarantees of quality and safety. The active packaging technology is based on the interaction between the package and the product: the preservatives are included into the package and released into the product progressively. This innovative technology will allow a significant reduction of the content of preservatives in the product with an increase shelf life.

The project is focused in the development of active packages based on PET , PP or HDPE for sun lotions, skin care creams and shampoo but the results obtained can be also applied in pharmaceutical and food industries.