Chapters authored
Fabricating Natural Biocomposites for Food Packaging
Nowadays, there are dominant scientific breakthroughs to advance the packaging industry to identify innovative and emerging fruitful results for making the food packaging systems, in particular, more efficient, resilient, and sustainable. Therefore, friendliness packaging research has been gaining momentum, thanks to global environmental awareness, and also consumer ecological consciousness, and leading companies are committing to a more holistic worldview of packaging in response to more sustainable processes to reduce pollution and any depletion of resources. High-yielding and cost-effective production and design of packaging, involving synthetic materials use reduction and development of new bio-based packaging materials, are very much part of this holistic approach. Thus, in comparison with petroleum-based materials, potential bio-based materials may have benefits for all agents comprised: the producers, customers as well as the whole environment. This chapter explores a review of relative topics across all disciplines that could accelerate understanding toward this goal. It walks through conventional materials, and then important natural and synthetic polymers from the context of food packaging. Moreover, it provides an overview of the performance of bioplastics and their limitations. State-of-the-art main trends on green biocomposites thereof, their potential to transform the food industry, are also herein considered.
Part of the book: Fiber-Reinforced Plastics