Functional Nanomaterials and Nanocomposites for Biodegradable Food Packaging

This book covers the recent developments in biopolymer nanocomposite materials and their possible impact on the food packaging industry. The food industry has been one of the highest consumers of plastics for the past two decades, where plastics have been used in huge amounts as food packaging materials. The generation of non-biodegradable plastic-based municipal solid waste, especially due to food packaging industry, has now become one of the two paramount problems faced by the world today. The other problem is being the wastage of food in humongous quantities annually. With the onset of globalization, food produced in one part of the world became available to people living in another part. However, during transportation and storage, a plethora of food gets wasted due to microbial contamination of chemical oxidation. This book looks into biopolymer nanocomposites, and it’s the ability to address both these issues. It presents the very essence of biopolymer nanocomposite technology with the combination of various nanomaterials and biopolymer to yield a functional product for food packaging, which is demonstrated in the various chapters. In general, this book caters to the needs of students involved in nanotechnology, biotechnology, food technology, industrial chemistry, and many others other interdisciplinary subjects.

Dr. Madhusudhan Alle is currently a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Memphis, United States (since 2023). Previously, he served as a Research Professor in the Department of Biomedical Science and the Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology at Kangwon National University, South Korea (2018–2022). He also held the position of Associate Professor in the Department of Chemistry at Gondar University, Ethiopia (2014–2018), where he also served as the Coordinator of M.Sc. (Chemistry) programs and as Head of the Chemistry Department. Under his supervision, four students successfully completed their master's theses. Dr. Alle earned his doctorate in Chemistry from Osmania University, India, in 2013. He has published more than 50 research articles, over 16 book chapters, and two books. With over 20 years of experience in teaching and research across academia and industry, he has made significant contributions to the field. He is recognized as a potential reviewer for several esteemed international journals and is a member of the Korean Chemical Society, Ethiopian Chemical Society, and Indian Chemical Society. Dr. Alle has presented his research at numerous national and international conferences in India, Ethiopia, South Korea, and the United States.

Dr. Ruchir Priyadarshi is currently working as a Brain Pool Fellow (2019-present) at the Department of Food and Nutrition, Kyung Hee University, Seoul, Republic of Korea. He obtained his Ph.D. (2018) from the Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, India, in Biodegradable Food Packaging. He served as Head of Biopolymer Innovations at Yash Papers Ltd. India (2018-2019), where he worked on the development of bagasse-based molded tableware products. His research interests include active food packaging, functional materials, sustainable materials, biodegradable polymers, and bionanocomposites. He has published more than 70 research and review articles published in high-impact international journals. He has also published various book chapters for reputed international publishers. He has more than 4300 citations on his name with an h-index of 32. Dr. Priyadarshi is also a reputed reviewer for several peer-reviewed international journals in the Food Technology and Materials Science research area.

Dr. Shiv Dutt Purohit is currently working as an International Research Professor (Assistant professor) at the School of Chemical Engineering, Yeungnam University, Gyeongsan, South Korea. He obtained his Ph.D. from the Department of Polymer and Process Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, in 2021. He is a materials scientist, and his research interests lie in Biomedical and related areas such as Tissue Engineering and Wound Healing. Besides, he is also intrigued to work in other areas, such as Food Packaging materials. He has published more than 20 research articles and book chapters and has more than 900 citations on his name with an h-index of 17. Dr Purohit is also a reputed reviewer for several peer-reviewed international journals and works as an Academic Editor for Wiley-VCH. He is also involved in the editing of a few special issues in SCIE Journals.