TomaPaint is an innovative startup with the objective of marketing a bio-resin extracted from agro-industry waste tomato (mostly skins), which forms the main component of bio-paints or bio-coatings, for use in the food packaging sector. The founders of TomaPaint derive from different training backgrounds:
- Mr Montanari originates from the public research world (Experimental Station for the Food Preserving Industry, or SSICA), where he worked for over 30 years, conducing applied research in the food packaging sector.
- The Chiesa brothers are entrepreneurs with a number of years’ experience in agriculture and bio-gas production from agro-industry waste.
- Mr Barbieri has a research doctorate in environmental engineering and has always been involved in environmental issues.
All four founders have worked in projects financed by the European Commission for the exploitation of waste products from the agro-industry. This specifically involves the development of a process and technology for the extraction of cutin, a natural resin, from tomato processing waste, in particular the skins. The new technology is covered by two national and international patents.
In 2022, based on a European H2020 EIC grant, Tomapaint constructed an industrial plant for the production of cutin with a capacity of 200 tons/year. The plant is operative and satisfies the requirements of Industry 4.0.
Tomapaint bio-resin has applications in the metal food container sector, replacing synthetic oil derived resins used for surface coatings to protect metal containers, reducing the risk of migration of harmful chemical substances while also exploiting agro-industry waste. Thanks to the barrier properties of Tomapaint, it can be used as a coating for paper, plastic and bioplastic substrates.
TomaPaint represents the first resin of natural origin and nothing similar exists on the market or as a patent filing.
In 2018 TomaPaint won first place in the Climate LaunchPad competition, and second place in the Start Cup Emilia Romagna competition. In 2019 we won the Seal of Excellence prize in the European Commission SME Instrument H2020 grant awards, and in 2020 we won a H2020 EIC grant. In 2022 Tomapaint was among the winners of the TerraNex Accelerator. Since December 2022 we have been partners in the H2020 AgriLoop project, which includes the participation of Chinese collaborators.
