Cellulosic Nanomaterials and Its Derivatives from Agro-Waste for Food Packaging Applications

Abstract

Over the recent few decades, renewable and sustainable technology has emerged as a major innovation, particularly in the food packaging and processing sectors. The development of packaging materials mainly derived from renewable, sustainable, and biodegradable resources has become critical and a need of the hour. It helps in addressing some of the global issues with synthetic plastic due to their nonbiodegradability and nonrenewability. The conversion of agro-waste into biodegradable polymeric products has contributed to advancement in the food packaging industry. Packaging is essential for preserving the flavor, shelf life, aroma, odor, nutrients, and quality of food. Thus, natural, biobased, recyclable, biodegradable, and sustainable polymeric biomaterials with physical, chemical, and structural properties similar to conventional polymers are gaining popularity. Cellulose and its derivatives in the nano and micro ranges are among the most prevalent and extensively used polymeric materials in the packaging sector. Cellulose is abundantly available and can be derived from several renewable resources such as biomasses and agro-waste, which help in producing cost-effective biodegradable, nontoxic, and biocompatible materials for food-grade packaging. This chapter covers the fundamental structural insights of lignocellulose and its derivatives, and the compositional analysis of cellulose agro-waste sources, highlighting the modern pretreatment methodologies. Furthermore, the chapter highlights the different kinds of cellulose-derived polymers and composites, including cellulose acetate, carboxymethyl cellulose, and cellulose nanofibers, discussing their applications and evaluating their properties in food packaging. © 2024 Scrivener Publishing LLC.