Novel food packaging materials including plant-based byproducts: A review

Agro-food processing industries generate a large volume of plant-byproducts that has immense potential in energy recovery, food product and packaging development. Recently, there is an emerging research interest in utilizing plant-byproducts to develop biodegradable packaging materials. Plant-byproducts possess strong structural and functional characteristics that can enhance the biopolymer packaging with improved barrier, mechanical, active, and intelligent properties. Biodegradable packaging materials, formulated using plant-byproducts, can be an innovative approach to overcome the waste management hurdles in the processed food industry. Plant-byproducts obtained from fruits, vegetables, grains, legumes, and seeds deliver distinct functions to the packaging matrix. This state-of-the-art review discusses the plant-byproduct based biodegradable films and coatings with respect to their film-forming, antioxidant, antimicrobial, mechanical, barrier, and pH-sensitive properties. The future perspectives of the plant-byproducts-based packaging material including the importance of industrial, regulatory, and environmental requirements have also been discussed. Plant-byproducts can be used to formulate novel food packaging materials due to their multi-dimensional advantages starting from waste utilization to ensuring food safety and ending as a biodegradable material. The polyphenols present in the byproducts such as peel, skin, roots, and seed significantly inhibited the lipid oxidation and microbial growth in the packed foods. Similarly, the anthocyanin extracted from the skin, pomace, and bran incorporated films showed color changes due to pH variation. These novel materials have the potential to develop both intelligent and active packaging systems to extend and monitor the shelf life of packed foods. • Plant-byproducts are novel raw materials for food packaging material development. • Polyphenols from these byproducts possess antioxidant and antimicrobial activities. • Anthocyanin-rich byproducts showed pH-sensitive properties in the film matrix. • Polysaccharides derived from byproducts improves mechanical and barrier properties. • Byproduct inclusion into packaging provides environmental and economic advantages.