Nanocellulose in bio-based food packaging applications

- Nanocelluloses have been used as reinforcements or matrices for bio-based films.
- Cellulose nanocrystals and nanofibrils have proven to be effective reinforcements.
- Bacterial cellulose sheets may be used intact or disintegrated to produce films.
- Active antimicrobial films have been obtained using nanocellulose.
- Uses of nanocellulose for food packaging have been reviewed.

Cellulose nanostructures have been widely studied as components of materials for a variety of applications including food packaging. They are usually incorporated as a reinforcement phase in nanocomposites (as cellulose nanocrystals or cellulose nanofibrils). In other cases, cellulose nanostructures have been used as matrices for films-bacterial cellulose (BC) deserving a special attention in this context, since it is produced as naturally nanostructured membranes, which may grow in a medium containing other biopolymers (producing bottom-up built bionanocomposites), be impregnated with other components, or be disintegrated into nanofibribils or even nanocrystals. This review summarizes findings and prospective applications of nanocellulose for bio-based materials to be used in food packaging (including active packaging).