School of Food Science and Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, China.
Academy of Contemporary Food Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou Higher Education Mega Centre, Guangzhou, China.
Crit Rev Food Sci Nutr. 2023;63(20):4450-4466. doi: 10.1080/10408398.2021.2002258. Epub 2021 Nov 12.
Natural edible films have recently gained a lot of interests in future food packaging. Polysaccharides and proteins in edible materials are not toxic and widely available, which have been confirmed as sustainable and green materials used for packaging films due to their good film-forming abilities. However, polysaccharides and proteins are hydrophilic in nature, they exhibit some undesirable material properties. Cold plasma (CP), as an innovative and highly efficient technology, has been introduced to improve the performance of polysaccharides and proteins-based films. This review mainly presents the basic information of polysaccharides and proteins-based films, principles of CP modified biopolymer films, and the effects of CP on the structural changes including surface morphology, surface composition, and bulk modification, and properties including wettability, mechanical properties, barrier properties, and thermal properties of polysaccharides, proteins, and polysaccharide/protein composite-based films. It is concluded that the CP modified performances are mainly depending on the polysaccharides and proteins raw materials, CP generation types and treatment conditions. The existing difficulties and future trends are also discussed. Despite natural materials currently not fully substitute for traditional plastic materials, CP has exhibited an effective solution to shape the future of natural materials for food packaging.
天然可食用薄膜最近在未来食品包装中引起了广泛关注。食用材料中的多糖和蛋白质无毒且来源广泛，由于其良好的成膜能力，已被确认为可持续和绿色的包装材料。然而，多糖和蛋白质本质上是亲水性的，它们表现出一些不理想的材料特性。冷等离子体（CP）作为一种创新且高效的技术，已被引入以改善基于多糖和蛋白质的薄膜的性能。本文主要介绍了基于多糖和蛋白质的薄膜的基本信息、CP 改性生物聚合物薄膜的原理，以及 CP 对基于多糖、蛋白质和多糖/蛋白质复合材料的薄膜的结构变化（包括表面形貌、表面组成和体相改性）和性能（包括润湿性、力学性能、阻隔性能和热性能）的影响。结论表明，CP 改性性能主要取决于多糖和蛋白质的原材料、CP 的产生类型和处理条件。还讨论了目前存在的困难和未来的发展趋势。尽管天然材料目前还不能完全替代传统的塑料材料，但 CP 已经为食品包装的天然材料的未来提供了一种有效的解决方案。
