High-Barrier, Biodegradable Food Packaging

authored by

Christoph Habel, Marius Schöttle, Matthias Daab, Natalie J. Eichstaedt, Daniel Wagner, Hadi Bakhshi, Seema Agarwal, Marcus A. Horn, Josef Breu

Abstract

Biodegradable, high-barrier, flexible and transparent food packaging are required to replace current multilayered, metal- or halogen-containing packaging that is nonrecyclable and nondegradable. An “all-green” solution for food packaging made of a polylactic acid (PLA) foil (25 µm) furnished with a glycol chitosan-clay nanocomposite coating (1.4 µm) is presented here that surpasses state-of-the-art high-performance materials like metallized poly(ethylene terephthalate) or poly(vinylidene chloride) even at harsh conditions (OTR = 0.17 cm

³ m

⁻² day

⁻¹ bar

⁻¹ at 75% relative humidity). While the barrier side of the foil inhibits bacterial colonization, the uncoated PLA side assures biodegradability. Such a Janus feature in combination with the superb barrier performance renders this waterborne bio-nanocomposite coating a valuable alternative to conventional less eco-friendly food packaging materials.

Organisation(s)

Institute of Microbiology

External Organisation(s)

University of Bayreuth

Type

Article

Journal

Macromolecular Materials and Engineering

Volume

303

ISSN

1438-7492

Publication date

09.10.2018

Publication status

Published

Peer reviewed

Yes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

General Chemical Engineering, Organic Chemistry, Polymers and Plastics, Materials Chemistry

Electronic version(s)

https://doi.org/10.1002/mame.201800333 (Access: Closed)