Functional Polysaccharide-based Films in the Green Packaging of Food: Progress and Prospects

Abstract

Foods are usually sensitive to various environmental factors, which will lead to sensory change, nutritional loss, or even spoilage. This has made food preservation an important issue in the long human history. Packaging is a fundamental basis for ensuring the effectiveness of food preservation methods. The superior benefits of plastic, like high transparency, excellent barrier properties, and desirable mechanical properties, make it a perfect choice for food packaging. However, it has brought about a large amount of white pollution, arousing substantial concerns about environmental protection in the past few decades. Successive policies worldwide have been issued to ban or restrict the use of plastic packaging materials, impelling the research and development of green packaging materials. Among them, polysaccharide-based packaging films have received great research interest, due to the advantages of abundant sources, full biodegradability, high safety, and excellent film-forming capability.