LNE

Laboratoire national de métrologie et d'essais

Managing director

Thomas Grenon

Headquarters

1 rue Gaston-Boissier
75754 Paris Cedex 15
Tél. :  01 40 43 37 00
www.lne.fr
packaging@lne.fr

Sectors

Packaging for food products
The LNE is in contact with all stakeholders: material and packaging manufacturers, users and packers in the food sector, product distribution chains and packaging promotion chains.

Skills

Materials and packaging food safety
Evaluation of the suitability of materials, objects and packaging in contact with food: safety and hygiene of the materials, packaging/food interactions during the packing process and associated processes, food safety of the articles and equipment used for food processing and packing.
Evaluation and control of potential dangers at the manufacturing and distribution stage of materials and packaging, which threaten the wholesomeness of food products: HACCP procedures applied to packaging, hygiene management system, good manufacturing and hygiene practices.
Barrier characteristics
Profiling of barrier characteristics (permeability, watertightness) of materials, packaging and capping and closing systems, for the protection and preservation of food products.
Simulation of distribution constraints
Simulation of the mechanical and climatic limitations encountered throughout the logistics circuit of a product's distribution, from its place of production or harvest to its point of sale or use, including storage, transport and maintenance (study of the behaviour of the packaging/product pairing, verification of the suitability of packaging/product/distribution logistics circuit, optimisation of packaging solutions).
Packaging and environment
Calculating requirements linked to the environment of packaging design and manufacturing. For their promotion: prevention via reduction at the source of packaging, suitability for re-use and exploitation of packaging waste.

Services

The services offered form part of an overall offer which includes: tests and analysis, consultancy and technical assistance, research and development projects, manufacturing projects, product and system certification, training and expertise.

Accreditations

Food technology institute (ITAI).
Cofrac (French accreditation committee): tests, in particular on materials and packaging in contact with food products, certification of products, certification following the British Retail Consortium (BRC IoP) reference standard in the field of hygiene applied to packaging.
DGCCRF: laboratory specialising in the field of packaging (Ministry of Transport) carrying out tests and controls on packaging manufacturing.
Certified by Ista (International Safe Transit Association): tests in the transport packaging sector.

Expertises

Anses Commission: materials in contact with food.
TC 261 committee specifically dedicated to packaging, TC 171 and TC 51 technical committees (paper/card materials and plastic materials), TC 194 committee (materials in contact with food).
DGCCRF study group and work by the Network of European National Reference Laboratories (LNR) piloted by the Ispra European Union Reference Laboratory in Italy (materials in contact with food).

Equipments

For its activities in the packaging sector, the LNE makes use of various laboratories (chemical analysis, profiling of materials and packaging, ageing laboratory, sensory evaluation) and test halls at its sites in Trappes and Nîmes.

Furthermore, the LNE shares with the Pierre-et-Marie-Curie University (Paris VI) use of Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance equipment.

Contact

Packaging hygiene
R&D manager
Packaging and transport

Other sites

Nîmes (30), Trappes (78)

Numbers of employees

60

Joint technological unit

Joint technological network

European projects

Scientific partnerships

With French teams
Actia technical Centres (Casimir, CTCPA), Ensaia, LSGA, AgroSup Dijon, Pierre-et-Marie-Curie University, structural chemistry, organic chemistry and biochemistry laboratory, (LCSOB) (Paris), AgroParisTech, Inra, Conservatoire national des arts et métiers, Polymer Industrial Material Laboratory (LMIP) (Paris).
With international teams
International Association Packaging Research Institute (IAPRI).

Project examples

Development of a website for regulatory survey and technical assistance on materials in contact with food (www.contactalimentaire.com). This site offers a themed library of accessible documents, regulatory and standardisation sections, good practice guides, certification, studies and research and assistance tools for packaging compliance.

Development, in connection with Ademe and Éco-Emballages, of a guide for improving packaging recyclability. This guide, online on the LNE's website, helps with evaluating the suitability of packaging or a packaging solution and with carrying out comparisons between different packaging solutions. It describes a methodology for examining packaging in order to evaluate its recyclability and for each material provides technical information on its suitability for recycling.

Carrying out of studies on the oxygen permeability of champagne bottle sealing caps.

Research on evaluation, via mass spectrometry (Py-MAB-TOF-MS), of the microbiological contamination of materials and packaging destined for contact with food.

Supporting a manufacturer in developing a new PET bottle, by analysing the possible migration of residual solvents originating from bottle sleeves and the suitability for palletisation of this new packing.