Bio-based packaging used in food processing: A critical review

Food packaging plays an important role in ensuring the global quality of the food consumed by people. Technological progress has been achieved in recent years in the food packaging sector, leading to a great diversity of food packaging, including bio-based packaging. This review highlights the different types of biodegradable polymers that are used for food packaging production, their characteristics and effects on food quality. Three categories of bio-based packaging are classified according to the origin of the materials: Polymers directly extracted from natural materials, polymers synthesized from bio derived monomers, and polymers produced by microorganisms. Bio-based food packaging has various properties and is increasingly used to limit the use of plastic packaging produced with petroleum resources. Several types of interactions occur between food and bio-based packaging such as permeation, migration and sorption. Depending on the properties of the material used for production, bio-based packaging contributes differently to the preservation of packaged food.   Key words: Biopolymers, food packaging, food quality, renewable material, biodegradable packaging.