Abstract
Biopolymers, like polysaccharides and proteins, are sustainable and green materials with excellent film-forming potential. Bio-based films have gained a lot of attention and are believed to be an alternative to plastics in next-generation food packaging. Compared to conventional plastics, biopolymers inherently have certain limitations like hydrophilicity, poor thermo-mechanical, and barrier properties. Therefore, the modification of biopolymers or their films provide an opportunity to develop packaging materials with desired characteristics. Among different modification approaches, the application of cold plasma has been a very efficient technology to enhance the functionality and interfacial characteristics of biopolymers. Cold plasma is biocompatible, shows uniformity in treatment, and is suitable for heat-sensitive components. This review provides information on different plasma generating equipment used for the modification of films and critically analyses the impact of cold plasma on packaging properties of films prepared from protein, polysaccharides, and their combinations. Most studies to date have shown that plasma treatment effectively enhances surface characteristics, mechanical, and thermal properties, while its impact on the improvement of barrier properties is limited. Plasma treatment increases surface roughness that enables surface adhesion, ink printability, and reduces the contact angle. Plasma-treated films loaded with antimicrobial compounds demonstrate strong antimicrobial efficacy, mainly due to the increase in their diffusion rate and the non-thermal nature of cold plasma that protects the functionality of bioactive compounds. This review also elaborates on the existing challenges and future needs. Overall, it can be concluded that the application of cold plasma is an effective strategy to modify the inherent limitations of biopolymer-based packaging materials for food packaging applications.
Highlights
The packaging of food materials provides protection, assists shelf-life, and facilitates both communication to consumers and the transportation of food products
The main objective of this review article was to investigate the impact of cold plasma used for the modification of the critical properties of packaging films prepared from protein, polysaccharides, or their combinations
Different factors that influence the effect of plasma treatment include the internal structure of biopolymers, types of plasma gas generating reactive species, and processing conditions
Summary
The packaging of food materials provides protection, assists shelf-life, and facilitates both communication to consumers and the transportation of food products. The packaging sector is the potential to lower plastic use up to 40% by the year 2030 [8]. Cold plasma treatment is a novel technique that modifies the surface of the polymer For instance, the application of a cold plasma-activated polylactic acid surface facilitated providing opportunities to develop packaging materials with desired characteristics. The grafting of polycaprolactone on the plasma-treated zein film showed enhanced water coating of nisin, resulting in the formation of antimicrobial packaging materials [48]. The pre-treatment of zein and polyacid with cold plasma the comical, mechanical, antioxidant, andthe antimicrobial for packaging patibility and adhesion between layers and activities enhancedsuitable the mechanical, water tilapia barrier, fillets [45]. 4 discusses safety concerns in roughness, relation to the application of cold plasma in the mechanical thermal properties, barrier properties, antimicrobial effects, and preparationproperties, of films used for food packaging applications. All the articles were studied carefully, and after a systematic review of the carefully chosen literature, the results of the authors were compared and considered until a consensus was reached
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