DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT OF A SUSTAINABLE PROCESS TO UTILIZE THE FOOD PROCESSING INDUSTRIES' WASTES FOR THE PRODUCTION OF BIODEGRADABLE DISPOSABLE FOOD PACKAGING MATERIAL

Abstract

Food is a basic human necessity intricately designed by nature to provide essential nutrients. However, most food is highly perishable and vulnerable to factors that diminish its nutritional value, leading to substantial waste and posing threats to food safety and security. This critical issue has driven the need for food protection and preservation to extend shelf life while maintaining inherent properties. Historically, packaging has played a vital role by creating barriers against the external environment. As consumer demand shifted towards fresh, minimally processed foods, and despite widespread acceptance of food processing, maintaining freshness remains a key industry challenge. Consequently, the industry urgently needs advanced smart packaging systems, particularly intelligent packaging, to enhance communication functionality and address the persistent issue of food freshness. Food must be a step ahead of technology to store food fresh and safe for extended periods. At the same time, ecological awareness and consumers' demand for safe food and quality products have led us to explore emerging food preservation techniques, including active food packaging. Antioxidants and antimicrobials are emerging practices in the active packaging segment. The chemical additives adversely affected the food and were not economical for commercial production. The active packaging with natural additives such as natural antioxidants and antimicrobial agents could bring a sustainable solution to this concern. Plants (herbs, spices), animals, mushrooms, enzymes, and microorganisms are considered the natural active component reservoirs. The active compounds from these sources can be utilized to develop active (antioxidant and antimicrobial) packaging. In the first and second chapters, we discuss active packaging and its classification for food preservation. It also elaborates on available sources of agro-waste, which have higher active compounds that could be valorized as a functional material for the development of packaging material. This chapter dived deeply into the antioxidant and antimicrobial properties of active packaging for the application of food preservation.