EU-funded ‘BeFORE’ project taps Masterpress single-layer pouch

In a significant move to accelerate the food and drink industry’s shift toward circular packaging, the EU-funded research initiative BeFORE (Barrier for Recycling) has selected Masterpress’s single-layer stand-up pouch as a key plastic case study for high-barrier recyclability testing.

The BeFORE project, operating under the 37th CORNET programme, is explicitly designed to provide practical data and insights necessary for manufacturers to transition from traditional multi-material structures to mono-material designs, ensuring both essential product protection and compliance with the stringent new requirements of the EU’s Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR).

Flexible, high-barrier packaging is critical for extending the shelf life of sensitive products, including food, by protecting against oxygen, moisture, and fats. Historically, these needs have necessitated complex, multi-layered structures that are incompatible with widely used mechanical recycling systems.

“High-barrier flexible packaging has historically been difficult to recycle, but this project demonstrates how collaborative R&D, connecting science, industry and legislation, can accelerate real change,” said Jakub Pędziński, pouches business development leader at Masterpress.

The BeFORE consortium, which includes industrial manufacturers and research institutions from Belgium, Germany, and Poland, is studying the real-world performance of these innovative, thin-layer mono-materials to ensure they maintain barrier integrity despite potential damage during filling, sealing, and handling.

Masterpress’s contribution to the project is a single-layer, non-laminated polyethylene (PE) stand-up pouch. Unlike standard laminated pouches that utilise multiple different materials — which confuses recycling streams — this pouch is constructed from a mono-material PE/EVOH structure, engineered to be correctly sorted and processed within existing PE recycling infrastructure.

As part of the project’s work, the pouch is undergoing rigorous testing across several parameters crucial to food and beverage producers:

• Barrier performance: verification that contents remain protected throughout the supply chain.
• Strength and shelf-life: assessment of the pouch’s resilience, particularly for sensitive liquid formulations.
• Safety and migration: evaluations in line with regulatory requirements for food contact materials.
• Recyclability: assessment against international recyclability guidelines.

The project’s findings are intended to directly feed into broader industry guidance, including a comprehensive white paper and best practices for design-for-recycling across plastic, paper, and hybrid structures.

Gabriel Magdaleno, strategic product development & marketing director at Masterpress, noted that the initiative is critical for manufacturers facing regulatory deadlines. “In the context of the EU PPWR, BeFORE positions us to help brands navigate the regulation’s implementation phase by ensuring that flexible high-barrier packaging can be recyclable and, at the same time, deliver reliable product protection.”

By providing scientific evaluations of functional performance, sortability, and recyclability, the BeFORE project aims to support the industry in achieving readiness for mandatory PPWR requirements, proving that high-barrier necessity and recyclability-by-design can be successfully balanced. The project is scheduled to run through February 2027.