EDIBLE FILMS

MARÍA ROBERTA ANSORENA; MARIANA PEREDA; NORMA E. MARCOVICH

Polymers for Food Applications

Springer Nature Switzerland AG

Lugar: Cham; Año: 2018; p. 5 - 24

Self-supporting edible films are one of the emerging technologies usedtoday to optimize food preservation. With an ever increasing demand of consumersfor high quality food products in addition to environmental concerns regarding theadverse effect of plastic packaging, food industry drive to develop and implementnew types of edible films. The use of edible films as food packaging can play animportant role in the quality, safety, transportation, storage, and display of a widerange of fresh and processed foods. Edible films can provide replacement and/orfortification of natural layers preventing moisture losses, while selectively allowingfor controlled exchange of important gases such as oxygen and carbon dioxide,therefore, extending shelf life by minimizing food quality deterioration. Moreover,edible films can act as carriers of food additives such as vitamins, antimicrobial andantioxidants agents, providing a highly localized functional effect and improvingfood organoleptic properties. In addition, edible films could add value to agriculturaland food industries by-products, since they are formed from various renewableeco-friendly and edible substances such as proteins, lipids or carbohydrates. Lipid-basedfilms have good water barrier properties but form brittle films. On the otherhand, protein and polysaccharide based films generally have good mechanical propertiesand thus they may withstand handling. However, they are not good barriers towater vapor. The use of blends comprising such compounds or their combinationwith lipids is thus a way of developing composite edible films matching the requirementsfor use as food packaging. Accordingly, this chapter discusses the latestadvances on edible films aimed for food packaging.