Technological watch

BackgroundRecent research advances in food packaging focus on developing sustainable and biodegradable alternatives to conventional petroleum-based materials that underlie the growing municipal solid waste and carbon footprint generation. Pullulan, a water-soluble microbial exopolysaccharide, has long been used as a food ingredient in the form of a thickener and stabilizer. Over the past decade, it has also been applied to edible coatings and films in food packaging.