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Sustainable approaches for integrating intrinsic self-healing polymer coatings into food packaging systems
Summary
This review examines self-healing biopolymer coatings for food packaging, highlighting their potential to autonomously repair mechanical damage and extend the functional lifespan of biodegradable materials while reducing microplastic fragment generation from degraded packaging. Standardized methods for quantifying multi-cycle healing performance are identified as the key barrier to translating these materials from laboratory research to commercial food packaging applications.
Although petroleum-based plastics dominate packaging, their persistence in landfills, waterways, and soils contributes to the generation of microplastics; nevertheless, conventional recycling does not recover the bulk of this commodity. Biopolymers offer a sustainable alternative, but their inherent susceptibility to mechanical damage during storage, transport, and use limits their widespread adoption. The emergence of self-healing biopolymers, however, capable of autonomously restoring critical mechanical and barrier properties after a damage event, represents a transformative opportunity, particularly in the food sector where robust and reliable packaging are paramount. However, progress is hampered by the absence of standardized, reproducible methods for quantifying self-healing across multiple cycles, making it difficult to compare materials and accelerate translation to commercial use. This mini review synthesizes the state-of-the-art in self-healing biopolymer development for food packaging, identifies key material design strategies, and critically evaluates current and emerging methods for assessing healing performance. By integrating insights from polymer science, materials engineering, and packaging technology, we offer a roadmap toward robust, scalable, and self-healing systems that intends to redefine sustainability standards for global food packaging.