Biobased Packaging: sustainable, functional and attractive

Biobased food packaging materials are derived from renewable sources and are potentially biodegradable that is composting.

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Biobased packaging materials include both edible coatings and edible films along with primary and secondary packaging materials. At the turn of the last century most nonfuel industrial products; dyes, inks, paint, medicines, chemicals, clothing, synthetic fibers and plastics were made from biobased resources. During the last years, the leading world research teams have been working on developing new biodegradable and edible packaging based on renewable biological sources, the so called “regulated life cycle materials”.

By the 1970s petroleum-derived materials had, to a large extent, replaced those materials derived from natural resources. Recent developments are raising the prospects that naturally derived resources again will be a major contributor to the production of industrial products. Biobased /green polymers in food packaging are the wave of the future. The Scientific challenge is to find such applications and thus to create the demand for large scale production of biopolymers/ biomaterials that would help in attaining the sustainable development of green materials in contrast to petroleum.

Sustainability aspects of biobased packaging

Biobased packaging can be regarded as a sustainable alternative for petrochemical plastics because it reduces the use of scarce fossil resources and also lowers CO2 emissions. However, many other aspects that determine whether a material or packaging is sustainable must also be taken into account in the overall assessment. Apart from biobased packaging, other options for making packaging more sustainable include the reduction of materials consumption (thinner films and bottles), reuse of packaging, recycling of packaging and even the avoidance of packaging altogether.

Reduction