In July 2026, Food packaging plays a vital role in ensuring the shelf life of food, along with ensuring its safety as well. Hence, it can also be stated that it plays an indispensable role in society. Conventional plastics are essential for the food packaging industry as they are highly effective in avoiding the contact of oxygen with food, which spoils the food immediately.
Traditional plastics used in the manufacturing of everyday wrappers and containers stay in the environment for decades, even after disposal. Hence, to get a solution to this issue, scientists are in search of safe, eco-friendly alternatives that can preserve food effectively, along with improving biodegradability after use.
Eco-friendly food packaging helps to lower environmental pollution, lower carbon footprint, and also eliminates toxic chemicals leaching from plastics. It also helps to utilize renewable materials like bagasse, bamboo, and recycled paper, which is helpful to enhance brand reputation, along with growing global regulations against single-use plastics. They easily break down naturally into safe elements, unlike traditional plastics that stay in the environment for decades.
Plant-based biodegradable plastics, such as polylactic acid (PLA), are a promising alternative but fall short of conventional plastics. Such plastics do not block oxygen or hold up mechanically. Researchers tried using additives to improve the strength of such plastics or make them actively scavenge oxygen. Also, these two enhancements are rarely combined and tested together. The main challenge is to develop a biodegradable plastic that helps to manage oxygen actively, along with maintaining the strength and functionality required for food packaging.
With this goal in mind, Andi Dirpan, a professor at Hasanuddin University in Indonesia, and his team developed multilayer PLA-based films reinforced with microcrystalline cellulose (MCC) and enhanced with an oxygen-scavenging compound, butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT). This biodegradable material combines oxygen-scavenging functionality with enhanced mechanical performance, offering a promising alternative to conventional plastics.
The main highlight of the work was the selection of the cellulose source. Instead of using cellulose from wood or crops, the researchers produced bacterial cellulose from fermented coconut water. Bacterial cellulose is highly pure and rich in fiber, making it an effective reinforcing component. During fermentation, the bacteria produced a dense cellulose membrane, which the researchers purified and processed into MCC powder for use as an additive. They then blended it into a PLA film constructed in three thin layers, with the oxygen scavenger BHT placed only in the two inner layers that would face the food.
The films made by the team were later tested with different amounts of MCC powder and then compared their coconut water-derived cellulose (MCC nata de coco) with a common commercial alternative (MCC avicel pH 102). When more cellulose was added to it, it made the films stronger, along with lowering the amount of oxygen that could pass through. The experiment also made the films denser and stiffer.
At the microscopic level, MCC nata de coco produced a more uniform, defect-free structure than the commercial alternative, which the researchers attributed to its higher purity and fiber content. Oxygen permeability tests also showed that the resulting film performed better than plain PLA.
Notably, the film broke down quickly and steadily when buried in soil. "The biodegradation rate was found to be 28.86% over 25 days," Dirpan explains. He adds, "These results show that the level of biodegradation is in accordance with that of biodegradable plastics made from similar polymers, which is over 25% within a period of 25 days."
After a detailed study of the relationship between structure, properties, and functions, an important trade-off was highlighted. The reinforced film showed improved stiffness and useful oxygen-scavenging properties; it was brittle and also did not stretch well before breaking. It mattered because food packaging materials should protect food while withstanding manufacturing, transport, and day-to-day handling. The research portrayed that combining, reinforcing, and oxygen-scavenging additives in a multilayer biodegradable system is promising, but the balance between barrier performance and flexibility still needs improvement.
The whole report provides a useful criterion for creating ecological plastics for food packaging. It is also clearly depicted from the bibliometric analysis conducted by the team that studies on advanced packaging technologies have grown exponentially, driven by increasing demand for sustainable and functional materials.
Against this backdrop, the team's efforts at Hasanuddin University are meaningful. Dirpan concludes, "Our approach supports sustainable food packaging development and contributes to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly responsible production (SDG 12), climate action (SDG 13), and food preservation (SDG 2)."
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