Edible Films and Coatings Based on Functionalized Molecules Extracted from Food Industry By-Products

Dear Colleagues,

The food industry has witnessed important changes in recent years. Most of these changes are strictly related to environmental concerns, which led to greater attention being paid to both the food waste problem and wastefulness of materials, thus highlighting sustainable topics. For these reasons, the food industries are increasingly looking at the food quality, protecting the food source and reducing the packaging volume or its environmental impact, e.g., by using new biodegradable configurations.

New technologies are being applied to improve food quality and extend the shelf-life of perishable foods. For example, the potential use of edible films enriched with natural bioactive compounds, or the application of food coatings, or biodegradable materials or biopolymers, are changing market needs and rules. The application of an edible coating to fruits and vegetables, in particular, is recommended to improve the quality and texture, and to maintain the physiological properties, as well as to reduce the moisture loss and respiration rate. Many studies are focused on the application of different types of edible films and coatings on foodstuffs; for this purpose, many resources are used, including polysaccharides, proteins, lipids and fats, polymeric biocomposites, and others. These biopolymers are mainly used due to their non-toxicity, biodegradability, biocompatibility, and antimicrobial properties, and other positive features that can be further improved using active compounds, such as plant extracts, essential oils, antioxidants, bacteriocins or microorganisms.

At present, the new challenge is the opportunity to enhance edible films and coating characteristics with the addition of active compounds recovered from food industry by-products, which can be obtained from food waste, and, in this way, re-closing the cycle of processing and waste inside the food industry chain.

The present Special Issue aims to gather outstanding cross-disciplinary approaches, applying a combination of modern technologies to improve knowledge of the application of edible films and coatings enriched with molecules of different origins and to reduce costs to provide very valuable information to farmers and manufacturers. Topics of interest for publication include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Edible coating applications to improve food or packaging solutions.
• Extraction techniques for active compounds from food industry by-products.
• Enriching techniques of coatings applications.
• Innovative edible compounds used as coatings.
• The application of industry by-products to improve sustainability.
• Green extraction of functional molecules from the food industry chain.

Dr. Valeria Rizzo
Prof. Dr. Stefano Farris
Dr. Teodora Emilia Coldea
Prof. Dr. Lluís Palou
Topic Editors