Abstract
In 2018, the worldwide consumption of meat was 346.14 million tonnes, and this is expected to increase in the future. As meat consumption increases, the use of packaging materials is expected to increase along with it. Petrochemical packaging materials which are widely used in the meat processing industry, take a long time to regenerate and biodegrade, thus they adversely affect the environment. Therefore, the necessity for the development of eco-friendly packaging materials for meat processing, which are easily degradable and recyclable, came to the fore. The objective of this review is to describe the application of natural compound-derived edible films with their antioxidant and antibacterial activities in meat and meat products. For several decades, polysaccharides (cellulose, starch, pectin, gum, alginate, carrageenan and chitosan), proteins (milk, collagen and isolated soy protein) and lipids (essential oil, waxes, emulsifiers, plasticizers and resins) were studied as basic materials for edible films to reduce plastic packaging. There are still high consumer demands for eco-friendly alternatives to petrochemical-based plastic packaging, and edible films can be used in a variety of ways in meat processing. More efforts to enhance the physiological and functional properties of edible films are needed for commercial application to meat and meat products.
Highlights
Food packaging is a multidisciplinary area that encompasses food science and engineering, microbiology, as well as chemistry, and ignited tremendous interest in maintaining the freshness and quality of foods and their raw materials from oxidation and microbial spoilage [1]
Polysaccharides are widely available in nature and are non-toxic materials with selective permeability to carbon dioxide and oxygen [17,18]. Polysaccharides such as chitosan, pectin, gums, starch, cellulose, alginate, and carrageenan can confer good barrier properties to gases, in particular against oxygen, because of their ordered hydrogen bonds network, most of these saccharides are sensitive to moisture due to their hydrophilic structure [19]
Plasticizers are characterized by low migration and low toxicity, and they are used in combination with biodegradable polymers to enhance the mechanical properties of edible packaging materials [19]
Summary
Food packaging is a multidisciplinary area that encompasses food science and engineering, microbiology, as well as chemistry, and ignited tremendous interest in maintaining the freshness and quality of foods and their raw materials from oxidation and microbial spoilage [1]. The concept of edible films evolved from environmental concerns, the increasing burden of plastic waste disposal, utilization of food industrial waste and consumer demands of natural, nutritional and healthy foods [9]. Edible films are structures for wrapping or interleaving products, prepared in order to obtain a thin thickness (layer of material), from biological macromolecules, which act as a barrier to external elements (moisture, gases and oils), protecting the products and increasing their shelf life [8] They have amalgamated the concept of food, preservation and packaging into a film that is biodegradable, edible, prevents moisture loss, color fading, lipid oxidation, off-odors, enhances shelf-life, and imparts functionality on meat, fish and derived products [9]. This review describes the application of edible films with natural compounds with antioxidants and antibacterials from eco-friendly material packaging for meat and meat products
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