Asian Packaging Congress Delhi 2023

March 17th-18th | Delhi, INDIA

Applications of Seaweed as Packaging Material
Kritika Sharma
Indian Institute of Packaging

BACKGROUND CURRENT INNOVATIONS RESULTS AND DISCUSSION CONCLUSION

Plastic waste projected to be 26 billion metric Bioplastic Film
tonnes, such that there will be more plastic Seaweed collected from the beach is cleaned,
than fish in the ocean by 2050. dried, and treated with NaOH. This sample is
rinsed and placed in deionized water, further,
Found on the coasts of Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, filtered, cooled, and frozen overnight. The frozen
Lakshadweep, Andaman and Nicobar Islands solidified agar is thawed and dried to powder.
Obtained agar powder along with glycerol is
ranging from brown, green and red algae
seaweeds have huge potential to be used as added to a gelatinised starch solution. Procured
eco-friendly packaging. film solution is dried overnight on a petridish.
WHAT ARE SEAWEEDS? Seaweed Paper
Excessive water is drained from the washed algal
Macroscopic, multicelluar, benthnic, material, further treated with an anti-
nonflowering, plant like organisms. fermentative. Treated algal material is grinded to
a particle size of 500 um, filtered and refined in a
Comprises of thallus, holdfast, air sacs, stipes, paper refiner. A homogenous mixture of cellulose
and blades. fibres and the refined algal material particles is
placed in a papermaking machine to make paper.
Classified mainly into three categories, green
algae, brown algae and red algae. Food Contact Material
Comsist of three main polysacchrides Active Packaging- Fucus vesiculosus extract along
essential in packaging synthesis- with a whey protein active coating inhibited
Carrageenans, Agar, Alginates. chicken breasts from oxidizing their lipids.
Edible Films- Edible films comprising
Carrageenan, Sodium Alginate, and Agar
improved the barrier and tensile properties of
packaging material.
Coatings- Seaweed Extract from brown and red
algae was developed for coating tomatoes,
GREEN ALGAE tomatoes coated with extract had better quality
BROWN ALGAE RED ALGAE
Dead Man's Finger Sargassum Irish Moss characteristics during 30 days of storage
Bioplastic Film
Compostable- breakdown
within a specific timeframe and
do not release harmful
substances. Source- Zerocircle Start-up
Seaweed Paper
The seaweed derived paper
requires less wood pulp during
papermaking process.
Active Packaging
F.vesiculosus extract with whey protein active
coating.
Coatings
Tomatoes coated with Sargassum tenerrimum
and Kappaphycus alvarezii.
The seaweed based packaging market was
valued at USD 180.78 million in 2021 and is
expected to reach the value of USD 613.42
million by 2029.
The Seaweed Production has increased from
0.16% in 1950 to 34.88% in 2019.
844 species of seaweeds have been reported
from Indian seas.
Source- Notpla Start-up
Seaweed based start-ups are growing day by
day, Notpla, Sway, Kelpi, Carbonwaver,
Zerocircle (Indian Start-up).
Seaweed proliferates, decompose, is easily
available, inexpensive and sustainable.
NOTPLA:Ooho
Source- drupa
REFERENCES
1. Ashok. K, Sivakumari. K and Jayaprakash.
P , Seaweeds, International Journal of
Applied Biochemistry.
2. Shravya S C, Vybhava Lakshmi N, Pooja P,
Kishore Kumar C M, Sadashiva Murthy B
M, seaweed as a sustainable source of
bioplastic, IRJMETS.