LIPIDS AND BIOPACKAGING

Packaging is important to preserve food quality. It is a barrier to wa ter vapor, gas, aroma, and solute migration between the food and the e nvironment. With the recent increase in ecological consciousness, rese arch has turned toward finding biodegradable materials. The different kinds of biopackaging are discussed with special focus on edible films . The aim of this review is to focus on the influence of lipids used i n edible films, mainly for their efficiency as water-vapor barriers. T he structure, degree of saturation, chainlength, physical state, shape and dimension of crystals, and distribution of lipids into the film i nfluence the functional properties of the film. In general, the perfor mance of edible films is lower than that of synthetic films, but their main advantage is to be easily, fully, and rapidly biodegradable.