Food packaging, biopolymers proteins

Biopolymer protein films can also be used as carrier agents for many types of additives (Espitia et al. 2014). Additives, such as antioxidants, anti-browning agents, nutraceuticals, texture enhancers, flavor, and color ingredients can also be added to enhance the functional and organoleptic properties of the films and/or the packaged foods (Wihodo and Moraru, 2013). 

There are other biomaterials with great potential in food packaging applications which are directly extracted from biomass, such as proteins (gluten, zein, etc.) and polysaccharide (i.e., chitosan). Some proteins and polysaccharides have excellent barriers under dry conditions, comparable to EVOH. However, under humid conditions these deteriorate to a much larger extent than EVOH. On the other hand, thermoplastic biopolymers such as PLA or PCL are not as strongly affected by moisture but have lower barriers than the benchmark PET. Research should therefore aim to diminish the water sensitivity of proteins and polysaccharides and to enhance the gas barrier of thermoplastic biopolyesters to make them suitable for monolayer and multilayer food packaging applications. 

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