From Waste to Functional Packaging: How Biotechnology is Shaping the Future of Sustainable Meat Preservation

Meat is among the most perishable food products, and a substantial share of EU production is lost or wasted before consumption. At the same time, the sector remains dependent on fossil-based plastic packaging that persists in the environment for centuries. This article examines how biotechnology-derived functional packaging addresses both problems at once, reviewing the biopolymers used as alternatives to conventional plastics — cellulose, starch, chitosan, agricultural proteins and microbial polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs). It describes the MATE4MEAT cascade approach, which converts agro-food residues into packaging building blocks using Natural Deep Eutectic Solvents (NADES), enzymatic saccharification and laccase-mediated grafting of natural phenols, and reports work by Ankara University on phenolic extracts screened for antimicrobial activity against Pseudomonas fluorescens and Lactobacillus spp. MATE4MEAT is a Research and Innovation Action funded under the PRIMA programme.