The advancement of plant-based biopolymer development for films and coatings: Possibilities and challenges

Maintaining the nutritive value, keeping quality, increasing shelf life, and avoiding loss of the fruits, vegetables, and other food items during long-term storage and transportation are the major challenges for the food industry. Proper coating of the food materials and medicines with eco-friendly, consumer-acceptable materials can provide a solution for the above. In the last couple of decades, different plant-derived polymer compounds have been used for filming and coating food material keeping in mind their moisture retention capacity, thermal stability, air exchange property, and anti-microbial activity. With the advancement of proteomic and metabolomic technologies in the last couple of years. Several new biomolecules are being identified which individually or in combination have been found to increase the bio polymerization property of existing filming agents. The present document describes the advantages and limitations of such plant products as coating materials as well as the strategies adapted to enhance their biofilm potentiality.