French SME developing enzyme-based technology that makes bioplastics genuinely compostable, active in sustainable packaging and food waste reduction projects.
CARBIOLICE is a French deep-tech SME that develops enzyme-based additives which enable plastics and bioplastics to genuinely biodegrade at end of life — addressing the critical gap between materials marketed as compostable and those that actually break down in home or industrial composting conditions. In EU research consortia, they contribute this proprietary enzymatic platform to projects developing next-generation sustainable packaging: multilayer barrier films, bio-based coatings, and home-compostable food containers. Their second active project extends their packaging expertise into food system outcomes, applying bio-based smart packaging to reduce food loss and food waste across European supply chains. They operate at the intersection of industrial biotechnology and packaging materials science, bringing a specific, deployable technology asset rather than broad materials research.
Enzymes are a defining keyword in PRESERVE, where CARBIOLICE contributed to bioplastics with tailored end-of-life — enzymatic degradation is their identified core commercial technology across both active projects.
Both PRESERVE and SISTERS involve bio-based food packaging and home-compostable formats, covering multilayer, flexible, rigid, and coated packaging structures.
PRESERVE covers multilayer packaging, barrier properties, ebeam treatment, coatings, adhesives, and microfibrillar reinforcement, indicating materials science depth beyond biodegradation alone.
SISTERS focuses on food loss reduction through smart containers, QR labelling, dynamic labelling, and short supply chain tools — a newer application domain for CARBIOLICE's packaging expertise.
Both H2020 projects started in 2021, so the evolution here reflects broadening of application scope rather than a long temporal arc. In PRESERVE, the focus is squarely on material performance: making bioplastics that function as real packaging — barrier properties, multilayer structures, enzymatic end-of-life, upcycled secondary streams. In SISTERS, the lens widens to food system outcomes: reducing food waste through smart labelling, home-compostable containers, and supply chain good-practice tools. The direction is clear — CARBIOLICE is moving from material-level innovation toward system-level food sustainability, while keeping bio-based packaging as the consistent technical thread.
CARBIOLICE is expanding from a packaging materials technology provider into a food sustainability solutions contributor, suggesting future collaborations will combine their enzymatic packaging platform with digital labelling, food waste measurement, and circular economy system design.
CARBIOLICE participates as a consortium member in both projects and has not led any H2020 project — a pattern consistent with companies that contribute a specific proprietary technology rather than driving a research agenda. Despite only two projects, they have accumulated 48 unique consortium partners across 14 countries, which points to participation in large, multi-partner European consortia rather than small focused collaborations. This is a specialist contributor profile: they bring a well-defined technical asset that consortia actively seek, rather than managing the full project scope.
With 48 unique consortium partners across 14 countries from only two projects, CARBIOLICE has built an unusually dense network for its project count, reflecting participation in large H2020 Research and Innovation Actions. The geographic breadth indicates their enzymatic technology has been recognized as a valued industrial contribution by pan-European packaging and food research consortia.
CARBIOLICE's differentiation lies in proprietary enzyme technology that delivers genuine end-of-life biodegradability — a functional capability that few industrial SMEs can offer directly inside R&D consortia. Where most sustainable packaging actors focus on material substitution (replacing one polymer with another), CARBIOLICE adds a biochemical processing layer: enzymes that activate degradation under composting conditions, including at home. For consortia building proposals around circular packaging, compostable food containers, or food waste reduction systems, they offer an industrial-grade enzymatic solution with a clear commercial path, not just lab-scale research.
