Exploitation of Agri-Food Waste for Packaging: Towards a Circular Bioeconomy

Effective packaging of food and feed is essential to maintain shelf life and reduce spoilage and waste, and is therefore a key contributor to food security. Presently, food and feed packaging materials are mainly derived from non-renewable fossil fuels which are poorly biodegradable and often difficult or impossible to re-use or re-cycle. The scale of oceanic pollution has also been highlighted in the media, whilst derived microplastics and nanoplastics are now recognised as a serious environmental health threat. Large quantities of by-products from crop production and food processing are available globally, however, they may be considered an under-exploited source of biopolymers and bioactive materials. Their use as feedstocks for packaging applications would add value to these waste streams, encourage re-use and waste minimisation, and assist in the replacement of petroleum-derived polymers (defossilisation) minimising environmental impact. This Special Issue welcomes submissions focussed on usage of agri-food waste derived materials for sustainable packaging applications as part of the drive towards a circular bioeconomy. Active and intelligent packaging solutions derived from the exploitation of agri-food wastes are also of interest, as well as information regarding consumer acceptance.

Dr. Catherine Birch
Prof. Dr. Graham Bonwick
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Applied Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• Agri-food waste
• packaging
• sustainable
• active
• intelligent