A partnership between Nestlé and IBM Research has led to the development of a generative AI tool that can identify novel high-barrier packaging materials.
Nestlé said it is continuously reducing the use of virgin plastic, whilst also pioneering the use of alternative materials and novel technologies, as well as moving to recyclable mono-material and paper-based solutions.
Identifying new packaging materials that meet each product’s functional needs while ensuring food safety and quality is often ‘meticulous’ – and in some cases, this requires years of research, Nestlé said.
As a result, Nestlé and IBM scientists levered AI-based processing techniques to construct a knowledge base of known materials from public and proprietary documents. Subsequently, the team fine-tuned a fit-for-purpose chemical language model on this curated corpus, enabling it to learn the representation of the molecular structures.
Using that knowledge, the teams leveraged the recently developed regression transformer by IBM Research to learn the correlation between key structural molecular features and the resulting physical-chemical properties. The resulting model can now propose entirely new high-barrier packaging materials that shield sensitive products from moisture, temperature swings and oxygen.
Nestlé said it will utilise this novel technology to identify future packaging materials, while considering cost, recyclability, and functionality.
Stefan Palzer, Nestlé chief technology officer, said, “This novel AI-powered language model, developed in collaboration with IBM Research, illustrates how Nestlé is leading the digital transformation within the food and beverage industry. In the future, such breakthrough technology could be used to optimise the development of more sustainable packaging solutions across product categories.”
Alessandro Curioni, IBM Research VP Europe & Africa, added, “We do believe that generative AI will continue to disrupt scientific discovery, impacting the core business of all knowledge-based industries, allowing critical differentiation and sustainable growth.”
