Developments and Properties of Plastic Mimicking Biopolymers for Food Packaging Application

Sustainability takes an ever increasing importance in the food industry. Here not only the selection of raw materials plays a role, but also packaging materials. Nowadays there is an increasing number of biodegradable and bio-compostable packaging materials available. However, these materials are still not able to replace mineral oil based packaging materials completely, nevertheless they are becoming increasingly important, since there must be solutions to problems such as pollution of the oceans by plastic waste, growing piles of rubbish from growing population, etc. The following literature review shows briefly recent developments on plastic mimicking biopolymers, as these materials guarantee great potential in itself and a future wider application in the food industry. The presented biopolymers were systematically classified according to their origin (plant, animal, microbial), and special emphasis have been placed on packaging properties. Finally, a forecast for the most promising materials and trends will be presented