Biodegradable polymers for food packaging: a review

For a long time polymers have supplied most of common packaging materials because they present several desired features like softness, lightness and transparency. However, increased use of synthetic packaging films has led to a serious ecological problems due to their total non-biodegradability. Although their complete replacement with eco-friendly packaging films is just impossible to achieve, at least for specific applications like food packaging the use of bioplastics should be the future. The aim of this review was to offer a complete view of the state of the art on biodegradable polymer packages for food application.