Starch-Based Bioplastic from Jackfruit Seed

The nonbiodegradable plastic films are still dominating material used for packaging in the food industry. With the growing concerns from the pass decades regarding their negative impacts on environment and health, governments are trying to curb the landfill disposal of petroleum-based plastics. There are growing social, political, and legislative pressures to develop new products based on renewable sources, like cellulose, starch, or protein, that have great potentials as alternatives. Starch, being the most abundant and inexpensive biopolymer in nature, have often been used for forming edible films or coatings for food applications. The jackfruit seeds, which account between 8 and 15% of the total fruit weight, have been attracting great interest for the extraction of starch that may be used for the production of edible films or coatings. With this background, this chapter presents a review of recent works on starch-based bioplastics from jackfruit seed and techniques to improve their performance as active bio-packaging materials.