Biodegradable hydrogel film for food packaging

Abstract

Disposal of waste plastic packaging materials has raised a serious problem worldwide leading to environmental pollution due to the fact that most of the plastic packaging materials are generally non-biodegradable. In this article we have reported about a novel synthetic and biopolymer based biodegradable hydrogel film as a food packaging material. The water vapour transmission (WVT) test proves that oxygen can pass through the hydrogel film, i.e. the film is breathable. Biodegradability study of the hydrogel film was carried out by soil burial-test in a composting environment up to 5 weeks. SEM analysis shows structural deformation of the hydrogel film with time. The hydrogel film shows sharp weight loss until 4 weeks, and after that no significant residues of the hydrogel films were found in the compost bed.