Food packaging materials are traditionally expected to contain foodstuffs and protect them from deteriorating agents. Although petroleum-derived polymers have been widely used for this purpose, the rising concern with their nonrenewable and/or nonbiodegradable nature paves the route for the development of greener alternatives, including polysaccharides and polypeptides. The use of these food-grade biomacromolecules, in addition to fruits and vegetables, provides edible packaging with suitable physical-mechanical properties as well as unique sensory and nutritional characteristics. This text reviews the chronological development pathway of films based on fruit and vegetable purees, pomaces, and extracts. Recent advances are extensively reviewed with an emphasis on the role that each film component plays in the resulting materials, whose production methods are examined from a technical standpoint and essential properties are compiled and contrasted to their conventional, synthetic counterparts. Finally, this comprehensive review discusses advantages and limitations of edible films based on fruits and vegetables.

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Please cite this article as: Lorevice, M.V., Otoni, C.G., Moura, M.R.d., Mattoso, L.H.C., Chitosan nanoparticles on the improvement of thermal, barrier, and mechanical properties of high-and low-methyl pectin films, Food Hydrocolloids (2015), ABSTRACT 26Non-biodegradable food packaging materials has caused serious environmental 27 problems due to their inappropriate discard. Biodegradable and renewable polymers 28 (e.g., polysaccharides), when reinforced with nanostructures, have been used to produce 29 novel, eco-friendly food packaging as alternatives to replace conventional packaging. 30This study aimed at adding chitosan nanoparticles (CSNPs) to pectin (high or low 31 methoxyl degree) matrices to produce HDM pectin/CSNP and LDM pectin/CSNP 32 nanocomposites films, as well as at evaluating the effect of CSNPs on films' 33 mechanical, thermal, and barrier properties. Also, CSNPs were characterized as to zeta 34 potential, average diameter, and FT-IR, whereas nanocomposites' thickness, 35 appearance, structure, morphology, mechanical, thermal, and barrier properties were 36 analyzed. CSNPs presented average diameter and zeta potential near to 110 nm and 50 37 mV, respectively. The addition of CSNPs improved the mechanical properties, being 38 tensile strength the most affected mechanical attribute (increased from 30.81 to 46.95 39 MPa and from 26.07 to 58.51 MPa for HDM pectin/CSNP and LDM pectin/CSNP, 40 respectively). These results show that the produced pectin/CSNPs nanocomposites had 41 improved mechanical properties when compared with control pectin films, allowing 42 these novel materials an alternative to food packaging production.43 44