Utilization of Polylactic Acid (PLA) in Textile Food Packaging: A Review"
SHaymaa Abdelrazek, Eman Abou Taleb, Abeer E. Mahmoud, Tamer Hamouda
Abstract
Food packaging is one of the most important aspects of modern life, it is unavoidable in various communities: manufacturers, shopkeepers, sellers, and consumers. In today's world, food packaging plays a crucial role in our everyday lives because it safeguards foods against contamination from outside sources and preserve food properties during the entire assigned shelf life. This role involves prevention of decay, extension of shelf life, and preservation of packaged food quality and protection. In the recent years, several researches on biodegradable materials to replace petroleum-based plastics in food packaging have been conducted. The demand of biodegradable packaging is increasing as it can be disposed of with minimal environmental impacts, but the industry is still in its early stages, owing to a scarcity of materials. This review paper dealing with some of the manufacturing challenges of environmentally sustainable food packaging products as an alternative to products derived from petroleum products. Where the study reviews the textile products used in the field of food packaging and the characteristics of these products. It also shows the great interest of the PLA in the field of food packaging industry, and this is due to the fact that it is environmentally friendly, biocompatibility and energy savings. This article reviews and discusses the physical, mechanical and biological properties of PLA fiber, Which allows to compare it with the properties of polyester fibers, and is it possible that PLA fibers be an alternative to it in the manufacture of woven food packages.