Application of bioplastics for food packaging

TLDR: In this article, a review of the performance of bioplastics materials for food packaging is presented, focusing on food packaging, and an overview of the main materials used for producing biobased films, their limitations, solutions thereof, possible applications and a state-of-the-art on bioplastic materials already used as a food packaging material.

Abstract: This review provides state of the art information on the performance of bioplastics materials, focusing on food packaging. It gives an overview of the main materials used for producing biobased films, their limitations, solutions thereof, possible applications and a state of the art on bioplastics already used as a food packaging material. Furthermore an inventory on bioplastics was made in the context of a research project. Important characteristics regarding packaging material are summarized in an extended table, which shows a big variety (e.g. permeability, tensile properties), suggesting a wide range of food products can be packed in biobased polymer films.

Full text

Abstract PhD symposium 20/12
Application of bioplastics for food packaging
Nanou Peelman
1,2
, Peter Ragaert
1,2
, Bruno De Meulenaer
2
, Frank Devlieghere
1
1
Laboratory of Food Microbiology and Food Preservation and
2
Research Group Food Chemistry and Human
Nutrition, Department of Food Safety and Food Quality, Ghent University, Coupure Links 653, 9000 Ghent,
Belgium
Food packaging is becoming increasingly important in the food industry, where trends such
as convenience and portioning are gaining more attention. However, increased use of
synthetic packaging films, due to these trends, has a significant environmental impact in
terms of CO
2
emissions and use of non renewable fossil resources. This has led to an
increased interest from the food, packaging and distribution industry in the development of
plastics derived from renewable resources (bioplastics). Also, recently, research has been
done in order to improve the functionality of bioplastics through laminating, coating and
blending various bioplastics (multilayered bioplastics).
The goal of this project is to investigate the applicability of these multilayered bioplastics for
various food packaging. The focus is on determining the shelf life of different groups of food,
ranging from short (e.g. fresh tomatoes) to long stable shelf life (e.g. biscuits), packaged in
various types of flexible bioplastics packaging for MAP applications. Prior to the storage tests
(WP2), which will be assessed by use of microbiological and chemical parameters, these
packages will be tested on permeability, sealability and mechanical resistance (WP1).
Printability and migration tests (WP3) and case studies in food companies (WP4) will be
provided later on.

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Q1. What are the contributions mentioned in the paper "Abstract phd symposium 20/12 application of bioplastics for food packaging" ?

The goal of this project is to investigate the applicability of these multilayered bioplastics for various food packaging.