Edible Packaging Materials Star of Future Environmental Protection Materials

Edible packaging material means that when the function of the package is achieved, the material can be converted into an animal or human edible raw material, which is a special packaging material that can realize the functional transformation of the packaging material. Edible packaging material is a kind of packaging without waste, and it is a kind of resource-friendly and environmentally-friendly packaging material. It is one of the key points in the development of packaging materials.

Edible packaging materials date back hundreds of years. As far back as our country’s Han dynasty, when Zheng He sailed to the Western Seas, he had already used beeswax to encapsulate fruits, so that fruits could be stored and preserved for a long period of time under the influence of different environmental climates. In modern times, glutinous rice flour was used as a film. In the anti-sticking inner packaging of candy.

Types of edible packaging materials

The types of edible packaging materials are currently broadly divided into five major categories.

No matter what kind of edible packaging material, it can only be defined by a certain main raw material or component. It is very difficult to classify with completely pure and single materials. Therefore, edible packaging materials use its main raw materials ( Ingredients) to classify.

1. Starch Edible Packaging Materials

Starch edible packaging materials are made from starch as the main raw material. During the production, the starch forming agent and the adhesive are arranged in a certain proportion, and then they are fully stirred and evenly mixed, and then processed by casting or hot pressing to obtain a packaging film or a packaging container with a certain rigidity.
The starches used in this type of edible packaging material include corn, sweet potatoes, potatoes, konjac and wheat starch. Most of the adhesives added are natural non-toxic vegetable or animal glues such as gelatin, agar, and natural resin glues.

2. Protein edible packaging materials

Protein-based edible packaging materials are protein-based packaging materials that utilize the colloidal properties of proteins while adding other additives to change the hydrophilicity of their colloids.

Protein-based edible packaging materials are mostly packaging films. Protein packaging films can be classified into collagen protein films, milk-based protein films, and grain protein films, depending on the source of their proteins.

3. Polysaccharide Edible Packaging Materials

The polysaccharide edible packaging material is mainly a packaging material obtained by using a polysaccharide of a food polysaccharide and a polysaccharide food material as a base material.

Polysaccharides Edible packaging materials can be roughly classified into four types: cellulose film, chitosan film, pullulan film, and hydrolyzed starch film, depending on the base material.

4. Fat edible packaging material

The fat edible packaging material is a packaging material made by utilizing the compactness of adipose tissue fibers in food. According to different fat sources, it can be divided into three types of fat packaging materials, such as vegetable oil-based film, animal fat-type film and wax-type film.

5. Compound Edible Packaging Materials

Compound type edible packaging material is a packaging material made using a variety of substrate combinations and using different processing techniques. The substrate includes the substrate used for the aforementioned four types of edible packaging materials, such as starch, protein, polysaccharide material, fat material and necessary additives.

In addition to the above five types of edible packaging materials, there are other types of edible packaging materials, such as expanded (foamed) food packaging materials.

Problems with edible packaging materials

The use of edible materials as a branch of new materials inevitably faces many problems:

(1) The performance needs to be improved. Edible packaging Whether it is the processing and molding of packaging containers, the performance of the packaging products obtained is far from the packaging performances of paper and plastics, and needs further improvement.
(2) The cost needs to be reduced. The research and production of edible packaging are all in the immature stage and have not yet achieved economies of scale, which makes the cost relatively high. In order to face the market, the cost has yet to be reduced.
(3) The process needs to be improved. The related manufacturing process of edible packaging is not yet mature, and the technical parameters are not very stable. It needs to be further improved.
(4) Application remains to be explored. Edible packaging is not universal packaging. What kind of food packaging should use edible packaging, which occasions and which storage conditions can be used for edible packaging, have to be explored and tested.
(5) Variety needs further development. At present, edible packaging can not meet the market demand, there are mainly problems in the variety of membranes with less containers, more soft materials, less hard materials, fewer natural processing, rough products and more refined products, etc., need to be resolved.

Main edible packaging materials processing and characteristics

Edible packaging materials are the hot topics in the current research of packaging materials. With regard to the continuous emergence of new varieties and technologies in edible packaging, the processing methods and characteristics of edible packaging materials that have been studied or being researched and developed are now briefly analyzed.

(I) Processing and Characteristics of Soybean Protein Edible Packaging Materials

Soy protein edible packaging materials are currently mainly studied in the film category. It mainly uses proteins extracted from soybeans, and adds plasticizers and film-forming agents that are harmless to humans or animals such as glycerol, sorbitol, etc., and then it is made into a plastic-like edible packaging by methods such as casting. material.

Soy protein edible packaging materials --- packaging film has good packaging characteristics, such as good moisture resistance, good flexibility and toughness, and high strength. At the same time, there is a certain ability of antibacterial disinfection, which has an effect on protecting water and preventing oxygen from infiltrating and preventing oxidation of packaged food. Therefore, this kind of edible packaging film is used for food packaging, especially for oily foods with high fat content, which can maintain the original flavor of foods. It is an ideal oily food packaging material.