Sustainable and Smart Biopolymer-Based Packaging for Future Food Systems: An Integrated Framework Linking Active Preservation, Intelligent Monitoring, Circular Economy, and Industrial Translation

Abstract The environmental burden of petroleum-based plastics and the growing need to reduce food loss and waste have accelerated the development of sustainable and smart biopolymer-based packaging. Biopolymers derived from polysaccharides, proteins, lipids, microbial polymers, and bio-based polyesters provide renewable and potentially biodegradable matrices for passive protection, active preservation, and intelligent quality monitoring. Unlike previous reviews that generally discuss biopolymer materials, active packaging, intelligent systems, or sustainability separately, this review presents an integrated framework linking material performance, functional engineering, food-specific deterioration mechanisms, validation requirements, environmental trade-offs, and industrial translation. Active systems are critically evaluated for antimicrobial and antioxidant activity, oxygen and ethylene scavenging, moisture regulation, and controlled release of bioactive compounds, whereas intelligent systems include pH-sensitive indicators, freshness and gas sensors, time–temperature indicators, biosensors, RFID/NFC technologies, and QR-code-enabled traceability. Particular attention is given to comparative material suitability, real-food validation, migration and safety, multilayer compatibility, data reliability, regulatory requirements, technology readiness, scalability, and end-of-life management. The review further emphasizes that biodegradability alone does not ensure sustainability and that the additional environmental burden of complex packaging should be balanced against the impacts of avoided food waste. Overall, future progress requires a shift from simple plastic substitution toward safe, food-specific, quantitatively validated, digitally reliable, circular, and industrially scalable packaging systems capable of delivering measurable environmental and food-quality benefits.