School of Earth, Environmental, and Marine Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
7-3-2024
Abstract
Packaging plays a crucial role in protecting food by providing excellent mechanical properties as well as effectively blocking water vapor, oxygen, oil, and other contaminants. The low degradation of widely used petroleum-based plastics leads to environmental pollution and poses health risks. This has drawn interest in renewable biopolymers as sustainable alternatives. The seafood industry generates significant waste that is rich in bioactive substances like chitin, chitosan, gelatins, and alginate, which can replace synthetic polymers in food packaging. Although biopolymers offer biodegradability, biocompatibility, and non-toxicity, their films often lack mechanical and barrier properties compared with synthetic polymer films. This comprehensive review discusses the chemical structure, characteristics, and extraction methods of biopolymers derived from seafood waste and their usage in the packaging area as reinforcement or base materials to guide researchers toward successful plastics replacement and commercialization. Our review highlights recent advancements in improving the thermal durability, mechanical strength, and barrier properties of seafood waste-derived packaging, explores the mechanisms behind these improvements, and briefly mentions the antimicrobial activities and mechanisms gained from these biopolymers. In addition, the remaining challenges and future directions for using seafood waste-derived biopolymers for packaging are discussed. This review aims to guide ongoing efforts to develop seafood waste-derived biopolymer films that can ultimately replace traditional plastic packaging.
Recommended Citation
Zhan, Zhijing, Yiming Feng, Jikai Zhao, Mingyu Qiao, and Qing Jin. 2024. "Valorization of Seafood Waste for Food Packaging Development" Foods 13, no. 13: 2122. https://doi.org/10.3390/foods13132122
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Publication Title
Foods
DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/foods13132122
Comments
© 2024 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).