Biodegradable and edible packaging: Fruit and vegetable applications

The excessive use of plastics, especially as raw material for packaging, has brought several negative aspects related to the environment. Due to the growing environmental awareness, biodegradable packaging has been widely studied as an alternative material, since it has several advantages over conventional polymers. These biodegradable packaging can also be edible and when applied as toppings on fruits and vegetables can increase the shelf life of these products. Due to the need to develop alternatives to replace synthetic packaging that can ensure the quality of the product to the consumer's table, numerous researches have presented biodegradable and edible films and coatings with applications in fruits and vegetables. Thus, the scope of this review is to highlight the fundamental aspects about this type of application, given the growing interest in this topic. For this, the main aspects about the production of biodegradable and edible packaging were discussed, as well as the particularities that make it possible to be applied in fruits and vegetables.