Fully Biodegradable Packaging Films for Fresh Food Storage Based on Oil‐Infused Bacterial Cellulose

• Published in: Advanced science Vol. 11; no. 23; pp. e2400826 - n/a
• Main Authors: Chen, Guoli, Wang, Kaimin, Chen, Pinghang, Cai, Daohang, Shao, Yan, Xia, Rui, Li, Chun, Wang, Haochuan, Ren, Fuzeng, Cheng, Xing, Yu, Yanhao
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Germany John Wiley & Sons, Inc 01.06.2024; John Wiley and Sons Inc; Wiley
• Subjects: Antimicrobial agents; Bacteria - metabolism; bacterial cellulose; biodegradable packaging film; Biodegradation, Environmental; Cellulose - chemistry; Cellulose - metabolism; Cellulose fibers; Food; Food packaging; Food Packaging - methods; Food Storage - methods; fresh food storage; Light; Microscopy; oil infusion; Oils & fats; Permeability; Porous materials; Vegetable oils; fresh food storage; oil infusion; bacterial cellulose; biodegradable packaging film
• ISSN: 2198-3844; 2198-3844
• DOI: 10.1002/advs.202400826

Fully biodegradable packaging materials are demanded to resolve the issue of plastic pollution. However, the fresh food storage performance of biodegradable materials is generally much lower than that of plastics due to their high permeability, microbial friendliness, and limited stretchability and transparency. Here a biodegradable packaging material is reported with high fresh food storage performance based on an oil‐infused bacterial cellulose (OBC) porous film. The oil infusion significantly improved cellulose's food‐keeping performance by reducing its gas permeability, increasing its stretchability and transparency, and enabling the active release of green vapor‐phase preservative molecules, while maintaining its intrinsically high degradability. Strawberries stored in a container with the OBC lid at 23 °C after 5 days exhibited a moldy rate of 0%, in contrast to the 100% moldy rate of those stored by poly(ethylene). Enhanced storage performance is also obtained on tomatoes, pork, and shrimp. The OBC film is naturally degraded after being buried in wet soil at 30 °C for 9 days, identical to the degradation rate of bacterial cellulose. The liquid seal strategy broadly applies to different celluloses, providing a general option for developing cellulose‐based biodegradable packaging materials. A biodegradable packaging material with changeable properties is developed by combining a biocompatible oil with an intrinsically degradable bacterial cellulose film. The dynamic oil alters cellulose's optical, mechanical, barrier, and antimicrobial properties in the favorable direction of fresh food storage, leading to improved food‐keeping performance compared with commercial polyethylene plastics while being quickly degradable.