Abstract
Food industry must guarantee food safety and seek sustainable solutions for increasing shelf life and decreasing food waste. Bio-based smart packaging is a potential option, where sustainability and real-time monitoring of food quality are combined assuring health safety and providing economic and environmental benefits. In this context, bio-based refers not only to packaging materials that are from renewable sources and biodegradable, but also to the sensor elements. The scope of this review is to explore the state-of-the-art of bio-based polymers used as food contact materials and to highlight the potential of natural compounds for sensing chemical and physical changes of the environment to monitor the food quality. Finally, different sustainability aspects of the bio-based materials are discussed.
Highlights
Busy lifestyles and growing urban populations mean an increasing demand for food that is fresh, healthy, convenient, and fast
The flip side of food safety is food waste as 1/3 of all produced food is lost or goes into waste (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 2019a) meaning safe and edible food products are thrown away the “best if used before” dates are only recommendations without information of the true status of the food. This is ethically and practically controversial as still today 820 billion people suffer from undernutrition and agricultural production would need to increase with 50% to feed the growing population by 2050 (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 2019b)
As a response to challenges associated with food safety, storage and transportation, there is a huge market need for more sustainable bio-based plastics and sensors that could alleviate the environmental, public health and economic burden caused by traditional materials
Summary
Busy lifestyles and growing urban populations mean an increasing demand for food that is fresh, healthy, convenient, and fast. As a response to challenges associated with food safety, storage and transportation, there is a huge market need for more sustainable bio-based plastics and sensors that could alleviate the environmental, public health and economic burden caused by traditional materials. The purpose of smart antimicrobial coatings is to mitigate the proliferation of various microbes prolonging the shelf-life of products, whereas sensors play role in monitoring physical and chemical conditions that influence or reflect the quality of the food products These add-ons have inevitable positive health, environmental and socio-economic effects, which may be amplified even further by accomplishing the smart functions using renewable natural materials and robust technologies (Arroyo et al, 2019). PA PVOH (vinyl polymer) PCL (polyester) PBS, PES, and PBSA [aliphatic (co)polyesters] PBAT, PBST [aliphatic-aromatic (co)polymers]
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