Functional Nanomaterials and Nanocomposites for Biodegradable Food Packaging

This book covers the recent developments in biopolymer nanocomposite materials and their possible impact on the food packaging industry. The food industry has been one of the highest consumers of plastics for the past two decades, where plastics have been used in huge amounts as food packaging materials. The generation of non-biodegradable plastic-based municipal solid waste, especially due to food packaging industry, has now become one of the two paramount problems faced by the world today. The other problem is being the wastage of food in humongous quantities annually. With the onset of globalization, food produced in one part of the world became available to people living in another part. However, during transportation and storage, a plethora of food gets wasted due to microbial contamination of chemical oxidation. This book looks into biopolymer nanocomposites, and it’s the ability to address both these issues. It presents the very essence of biopolymer nanocomposite technology with the combination of various nanomaterials and biopolymer to yield a functional product for food packaging, which is demonstrated in the various chapters. In general, this book caters to the needs of students involved in nanotechnology, biotechnology, food technology, industrial chemistry, and many others other interdisciplinary subjects.