The start up TomaPaint srl has been founded at the beginning of March 2019. The cofounders are Angela Montanari, Stefano Chiesa, Alessandro Chiesa and Tommaso Barbieri.
The core business of the project is the industrialization and commercialization of a natural bio-resin obtained from industrial tomato processing by-products (mainly skins).
The bio-resin will be the main component of a bio-lacquer, intended for the application on the internal and external surfaces of the metal cans for foodstuffs in substitution of the traditional, standard oil-based lacquers. The starting material is cutin, a component of the cuticle of the tomato peels.
TomaPaint meets the demand for sustainable production and for the safeguarding of consumer health by aligning with the principles of the circular economy, valorising agro-industrial by-products and using renewable resources.
This is thanks to a patented process for extracting cutin from tomatoes industrial by-products, a molecule that is the basis for the production of an innovative bio-lacquer which can be used for the coating of food metal packaging.
TomaPaint is helping conducting experiments on a smaller scale to simulate real-world production processes, biorefineries (facilities that convert biomass into various products), and the final applications or uses of those products.
This approach helps to optimize the processes, refine the biorefinery schemes, and ensure that the end products meet the desired quality and functionality requirements.
Key people
Tommaso Barbieri
He is the principal co-founder of Tomapaint srl, an italian startup specialized in the extraction of a bio-resin (cutin) from tomato process by products (mainly peels). The Tomapaint bio-resin can be used as main ingredient to formulate coatings (but not only) using a circular economy approach.
E-mail address: tommaso.barbieri@tomapaint.com