Valorization of Domestic Kitchen Wastes through Formulation of Ecofriendly Polysaccharide Based Food Packaging Bioplastics

ABSTRACT: The growing demand on bioeconomy is associated with immense utilization of agro wastes derived bioplastics as a renewable, biodegradable, environment friendly alternative for petrochemical based food packages. The study aims on valorization of unconventional starch and cellulose sources of domestic kitchen wastes in fabrication of starch pectin based and cellulose pectin-based food packaging bioplastics. Surface topography of starch pectin-based biofilms is much different from cellulose pectin-based biofilms. The study on physicochemical characteristics reveals that the hygroscopicity of biofilms increases with increasing concentration of starch, cellulose and pectin, while density decreases simultaneously. The control film C1 with 1g starch exhibited maximum moisture content of 32.5% but recorded minimum density of 0.015 ± 0.002 g/cm3. The higher water solubility of cellulose pectin-based biofilms ensures applicability as edible food coating material while starch pectin-based biofilms are suitable for improving the self-life of food as packaging films with incorporation of suitable preservatives. Complete biodegradation of cellulose pectin-based biofilms takes place within 3 days while an appreciable soil burial weight loss was reported almost for all starch pectin-based combinations. Among cellulose pectin-based combination biofilms F, C, I was considered best, while among the starch pectin-based combination biofilm C1, G1, E1 was considered best. Thus, this approach is not only a sustainable alternative for food preservation but also a novel initiative to control food bio wastes based environmental pollution.