Strategies to improve the mechanical strength and water resistance of agar films for food packaging applications

- Agar solutions easier to process with locust bean gum (LBG) addition (viscosity increase and decrease in gelling ability).
- Film-forming properties of native (NA) and alkali-modified (AA) agars clearly improved by LBG addition.
- NA/LBG films exhibited similar or better properties than AA/LBG films.
- NA/LBG films are more cost-attractive for the transformation industries.
- Integrated multi-trophic aquaculture can enable tunability and quality control of biomass for transformation industries.