Seafood Waste-Based Materials for Sustainable Food Packing: From Waste to Wealth

Sustainable development is a global goal that entails an interdisciplinary approach for tackling ongoing and future challenges regarding the environment, climate change, economic limitations, and resource efficiency. Against this background, valorizing available and high-potential waste to manufacture value-added products that facilitate recycling resources and energy meets the significant objectives of a circular economy. Renewable and biodegradable biopolymers from seafood waste are recognized as promising alternatives for developing sustainable food packaging materials, boosting resource efficiency, and diminishing environmental concerns. Based on the concepts of waste to wealth and circular economies, the present review summarizes the recent advances regarding the production and utilization of seafood waste, as well as current problems in food packaging and the market demand for natural biopolymer-based food packaging. The principal objective of this review is to analyze the utilization of seafood waste and by-products to manufacture biodegradable bio-based materials for food packaging materials that are environmentally and economically sustainable. The applications of edible films produced from fish gelatin and chitosan extracted from seafood waste for food packaging are also highlighted. The present study will provide researchers, food technologists, and academia with more robust knowledge to facilitate future food packaging research and the creation of a cyclical economy.