ICAR-CIAE, Bhopal and M/s. Natures Bioplastics Pvt. Ltd. Developes Biodegradable films for Milk and water Packaging

The use of plastic-based films has contributed to severe environmental pollution and ecological harm due to their non-biodegradability, persistence in ecosystems. Recognizing the urgent need to address this issue, the Government of India has launched a nationwide campaign to ban single-use plastics, aiming to mitigate environmental pollution and promote the adoption of sustainable alternatives. Despite significant progress in developing biodegradable films for food packaging, existing solutions often fail to achieve the dual objectives of sustainability and effective shelf-life enhancement for perishable goods.

Additionally, current biodegradable films lack flexibility in application, specifically for packaging liquid foods, where leakage, leaching of polymers in to filled liquid and structural integrity pose challenges. Keeping in view a suitable biodegradable films for water and milk packaging has been developed using renewable materials, such as polysaccharides, proteins, and biopolymers.

The characterization of the developed two types of biofilm have been carried out as per IS 15609: 2005, IS 11805: 2024 and ASTM standards. Based on the comparative evaluation of both the types of biofilms samples against the relevant BIS standards for water packaging film (IS 11805:2007) and water packaging film (IS 15609:2005), shows that, the developed biofilm materials for packaging of water and milk complies the respective BIS standards while offering the additional advantage of biodegradability, highlighting their strong potential as environmentally sustainable alternatives to conventional LDPE/LLDPE films for water and milk packaging. Both the films were further tested by filling with water and milk in pouches.

The filled pouches analyzed for its drop as well as leak tests. The cost of production of conventional three layer LDPE packaging film used for milk is Rs. 150-160/kg while the cost of developed biofilm is Rs. 170-175/kg. However, cost may be reduced during commercial scale industrial production.

(Source: ICAR-Central Institute of Agricultural Engineering, Bhopal)