A Spanish company has won a prize for packaging cans made of polymeric materials at the recent Hispack International Packaging and Canning Exhibition in Barcelona, Spain's National Daily reported.

 

New plastic cans can extend the shelf life of foods, such as canned cream soup, for up to a year.

 

"This new material can cut off the way air, sunlight, moisture or other microorganisms enter the container," says Josep Toradas, a Spanish expert at DuPont.

 

Ramon Catala, a promoter of the technology and a member of the Valencia Institute of Agricultural Chemistry and Food Technology, said: "We have made a lot of important achievements in the laboratory, but only when we are in the actual production stage can we prove that this material can compete with the canned products on the market today."

 

"There is no ideal canned material," he said. From a hygienic standpoint, the best material should be glass, but its disadvantage is that it can not resist sunlight. Both experts pointed out that glass cans are too heavy, fragile and difficult to transport, so it is difficult to attract users, and many companies are turning their attention to new plastics.