Food Packaging Polymer Materials: Progress and Prospects
A special issue of Polymers (ISSN 2073-4360). This special issue belongs to the section "Polymer Applications".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 October 2025 | Viewed by 718
Special Issue Editors
Interests: food packaging; biodegradable polymers; recyclable polymers; eco-design; smart packaging; multifunctional packaging; active and passive coating solutions; food waste valorization
Interests: food packaging; gas barrier coatings; nanocomposite coatings; nanostructured coatings; food wastes valorization; non-thermal technologies
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Food packaging solutions are widely recognized for their significant benefits across the entire food supply chain, particularly in enhancing food safety and reducing waste. Polymers play a crucial role in this sector due to their numerous advantages, including low cost, lightweight nature, ease of processing, and the ability to tailor their functional properties—such as barrier, mechanical, optical, and surface properties, sealability, and heat and low-temperature resistance—to meet the specific shelf-life requirements of different foods.
Today, the primary challenge in this field is developing high-performance and sustainable packaging solutions. In this sense, the use of polymers from renewable resources, recycled plastics, the reduction in thicknesses, or the development of 100% recyclable structures could represent key strategies to support the circular economy principles; at the same time, the adoption of innovative technologies, such as nanotechnology, polymer blending, smart packaging, and active or passive coatings, as well as the development of monomaterial and biobased multilayer packaging, enables the functionalization of sustainable plastic packaging to meet all the required performance.
This Special Issue aims to advance the field of food packaging polymeric materials by showcasing cutting-edge research on structure, performance, processes, and applications of polymer-based packaging. We encourage the research community to contribute with its expertise, passion, and science to expand the boundaries of knowledge by addressing new challenges, through the submission of original research articles and reviews.
Research topics may include (but are not limited to) the following:
- Active and intelligent packaging for food preservation;
- Biobased and biodegradable packaging systems;
- Novel surface treatments and coatings;
- Safety issues and migration from food packaging materials;
- Eco-design, life cycle assessment, and related strategies for circular economy;
- Recycling, end-of-life solutions, and waste material valorization;
- Innovative materials and technologies for food preservation;
- Shelf-life tests with innovative food packaging solutions.
We look forward to receiving your contributions.
Dr. Annalisa Apicella
Dr. Daniele Carullo
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. Polymers 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 2700 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.
Keywords
- food packaging
- polymer recycling
- smart packaging
- biodegradable polymers
- polymer processing
- barrier properties
- multifunctional packaging
- eco-design
- migration
- sustainable packaging
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