Biodegradable films and composite coatings: past, present and future.

Food packaging is concerned with the preservation and
protection of all types of foods and their raw materials,
particularly from oxidative and microbial spoilage and also
to extend their shelf-life characteristics. Increased use of
synthetic packaging films has led to serious ecological problems
due to their total non-biodegradability. Continuous
awareness by one and all towards environmental pollution
by the latter and as a result the need for a safe, eco-friendly
atmosphere has led to a paradigm shift on the use of biodegradable
materials, especially from renewable agriculture
feedstock and marine food processing industry wastes.
Such an approach amounts to natural resource conservation
and recyclability as well as generation of new, innovative
design and use. Their total biodegradation to
environmentally friendly benign products such as CO2, water
and quality compost is the turning point which needs to be
capitalized and encashed. Polymer cross-linking and graft
copolymerization of natural polymers with synthetic monomers
are other alternatives of value in biodegradable
packaging films. Although their complete replacement for
synthetic plastics is just impossible to achieve and perhaps
may be even unnecessary, at least for a few specific applications
our attention and needful are required in the days
to come. No doubt, eventually BIOPACKAGING will be our
future.