Potentials of Berry Fruits Pomaces for Bio-Based Films

Nowadays, there are new approaches and goals for packaging materials for advantages on foods and friendly properties on environment. For these purposes, biodegradable polymers are much preferred to replace conventional polymeric goods in packaging applications. Biopolymers, such as carboxyl methyl cellulose (CMS), environmentally friendly sustainable plastic alternatives. The worldwide need for bioplastic as an alternative for conventional plastics because of their nontoxicity, biocompatibility, renewability, and biodegradability properties. They are commonly produced using different raw materials (proteins and polysaccharides), which are mostly derived from plants (cellulose-based plastics and starch derived plastics), and microbial sources. Moreover, there is more than a need to preserve natural resources and to reduce plastic waste materials by replacing them by bio-alternatives. It should be solution that wasted foods, which are the GRAS, should be a source for enriching biopolymers with their valuable bioactive compounds. Fruits and vegetables, especially berries that contain high content of valuable bioactive compounds, can be used for enriching to biopolymers and for production of active films and indicators. It has high importance for food science because oxidation and microbial contamination present major problems that influence quality and safety of different products during their storage. Currently, to overcome these points, there are some approaches can be applied. For instance, bioactive compounds and antioxidant agents from berries can be directly added to biopolymers. Blueberries, red and purple grape, black mulberries etc. and their industrial wasted present good sources of antioxidants, non-flavonoids and flavonoids. Phenols are primarily found in the skin and pomace of berries. It is known that most of these phenols are typically wasted due to poor extraction during fermentation. Therefore, these wastes are of great importance for biofilms. However, it is also essential to investigate their effects on other properties, such as texture, taste, solubility, etc.