What is the FTCSC Food Packaging Research Funding Request Program?

The FTCSC Food Packaging Research Funding Request Program is designed to help food packaging experts secure the preliminary results or equipment to seek larger extramural funding that will address NASA's space food packaging challenge.

Submission deadline is March 7, 2005 and funds are limited to a one-time support of up to $25,000.

All qualified responsible sources may submit a proposal, which will be considered by FTCSC.

What is the Goal of the FTCSC Food Packaging Research Funding Request Program?

The goal of the NASA FTCSC Food Packaging Research Funding Request program is to establish a working relationship with food packaging experts and to help them secure the preliminary results or equipment to seek larger extramural funding that will address the NASA space food packaging challenge. (Please refer to the Space Food Packaging Fact brochure below.)

The current packaging material employed by NASA was designed for Shuttle with a 9-month shelf life requirement. Thus, for these same space foods to meet the 1-year shelf life requirement for the International Space Station they are being over-wrapped with a plastic/foil laminate, which adds waste and weight. For long-duration mission to Mars, a 5-year shelf life is required with a retortable pouch that is metal free for microwaving and trash disposal (combustion).

 

Specific research objectives for next generation food packaging are:

—Reduced mass,

—Metal free-and-clear packaging for foods with a 1- to 5-year shelf life,

—Thermoformable for 1-year shelf life,

—Metal-free retortable pouch for 5-year shelf life foods,

—Little to no off-gassing of chemicals, and

—Combustible.

Explicit objectives:

—These funds are limited to a one-time support of up to $25,000 that must be utilized by September 1, 2005.

—Travel funds are available to develop joint proposals with colleagues from other universities. (For ISU faculty there are additional funds available from the College of Agriculture for developing collaboration with 1890 institutions and Tuskegee University.)

—Proposals with matching funds will be looked upon favorably during evaluation.

—Project final reports will be due September 1, 2005.