National Academy of Agricultural Sciences (NAAS)
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PRINT ISSN : 2319-7692
Online ISSN : 2319-7706 Issues : 12 per year Publisher : Excellent Publishers Email : editorijcmas@gmail.com / submit@ijcmas.com Editor-in-chief: Dr.M.Prakash Index Copernicus ICV 2018: 95.39 NAAS RATING 2020: 5.38 |
In the past years, various studies have been done on biodegradable materials to replace petroleum based plastics for food packaging application. For this purpose, biopolymers are considered the most favorable material because of their biodegradable nature and long shelf life properties like resistance to chemical or enzymatic reactions. Keeping in view the non-renewable nature and waste disposal problem of petroleum based plastics; newer concept of use of bioplastics came into existence. Bioplastics are derived from renewable resources i.e. produced from agro/food sources, materials such as starch, cellulose, protein etc. used for packaging materials and which are considered safe to be used in food applications. Bioplastics made from renewable sources are compostable or degradable by the enzymatic action of micro-organisms and gets hydrolysed into CO2, CH4, inorganic compounds or biomass. The beneficial uses of bio-origin materials obtained from microbial fermentations, starch and cellulose has led to their immense innovative uses in food packaging in the last few years. The biodegradable packaging materials are highly beneficial in one time use or short-duration packaging requirements. The main function of biodegradables like any other packaging material is to protect the contents from surrounding and maintain its quality throughout the storage life. They are widely used to pack low shelf life products, like fresh fruits and vegetables, and high shelf life products, like pasta and chips, which does not require very high oxygen and/or water barrier properties. To increase the mechanical properties, and water barrier properties, the bioplastics can be blended easily with other biopolymer as well as nanofillers. The dependency on limited petroleum resources has been reduced with the developments in the bio-based packaging. Thus, the bioplastics serve as an eco-friendly substitute for the use of non-renewable and non-biodegradable plastic based packaging materials and the study of recyclable and biodegradable polymers is fascinating and developing area in packaging science.
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