Food Marketing & Technology - India July 2019 | Page 48

Packaging
BIONANOCOMPOSITES AND
THEIR APPLICATION IN
FOOD PACKAGING
BY: MR. SHIVAPRASAD D.P AND DR. NEETU KUMRA TANEJA *
N
anotechnology has emerged
as an interesting field of
research and development
since its introduction in 1959 by
Richard Feynman. The field of
Nanotechnology deals with synthesis
and characterization of materials
in the size ranging from 1- 100nm
referred to as nanomaterials that
include nanoparticles, nanofibres
and nanotubes, and nanocomposites.
Nanomaterials by virtue of their small
size, exhibit unique physicochemical
properties
that
influence
their
biological interactions and movement
across barrier surfaces and offer huge
array of applications in the area of food,
environment and medical industry.
• Nanoparticles: are small sized
nanomaterials with each particle
size with diameter < 100 nm.
• Nanofibres: are a sub-class of
nanoparticles (includes nanotubes)
which have two dimensions <100
nm but the third (axial) dimension
can be much larger in size.
• Nanocomposites: are a multi-phased
structures in which at least one of the
phases has at least one dimension
in the nanoscale (i.e <1-100 nm).
Natural compounds or polymers
are incorporated as the other phase
to make it bio-nanocomposites
with nature like properties. Often
metal ions are incorporated into
them to impart antimicrobial
properties.
Bionanocomposites
have the advantage of being more
resilient, stable, adaptive and
multifunctional
offering
huge
array of interdisciplinary industrial
applications especially in food
packaging.
Food Packaging is defined as the
coordinating system of preparing
goods for transport, distribution,
storage, relating and use of the goods.
The packaging material should
offer functions such as protect the
product from environmental hazard,
barrier properties, gas permeability,
mechanical properties, marketing-
related properties (attractiveness,
permeability and cost), convenience
and
aroma.
The
packaging
materials mostly used in the food
industries are synthetic polymers
(petroleum-based) and are non-
biodegradable which results in
serious environmental problems. On
the other hand bio-nanocomposite
packaging materials are different
in comparison to regular synthetic
packaging material. They offer
chemical and thermal stability,
high
mechanical
strength,
gas
and water barrier properties, heat
resistance, biodegradability, sensing
microbiological
and
biochemical
changes, antimicrobial and antifungal
properties, optical transparency etc.
Bionanocomposites
have the advantage of
being more resilient,
stable, adaptive
and multifunctional
offering huge array of
interdisciplinary industrial
applications especially in
food packaging
Food Marketing & Technology
48
July 2019
Food Packaging applications
of bio-nanocomposites
1. Antimicrobial: Restrict/Inhibits the
microbial contamination.
2. UV blockers: Provides protection
against UV light.
3. Packaging properties: Improved
barrier, thermal and mechanical
properties.
4. Biodegradability:
Improved
biodegradability thus eco-friendly.
5. Monitors
product
conditions:
Freshness indicator, gas detector,
Time temperature indicator &
leakage indicator.
6. Target
delivery:
Application
in nutraceutical and bioactive
compounds.
7. Intelligent Packaging: Indicated
deterioration, self-heating and self
cooling.
8. Information on the product:
Barcode and authenticity of product.
9. Nano Sensors: Senses contaminants
there by indicating contaminants.
Nanocomposite and
Antimicrobial system.
Nanoparticles such as metal ions are
usually incorporated into polymer
matrix. These metal ions bring about
an effective antimicrobial activity in
their ‘nano’ dimensions at very low
concentrations. Table-1 summarizes
the antimicrobial packaging system
with different nanoparticles.