Biopolymer composites with halloysite nanotubes for multifunctional enhancement in food packaging: A review.

Apart from many naturally occurring nanomaterials, halloysite nanotubes have multiple purposes. These nanotubes have a higher aspect ratio and act as a promising candidate for functional additives for food applications. To name a few, aspects such as thermal stability, surface area, and biocompatibility are strengths of HNTs. These strengths are utilised efficiently when incorporated into polymer matrices, substantially enhancing the mechanical strength, durability, stiffness, and toughness of packaging materials by forming a compact, tortuous network that also significantly improves gas and moisture barrier properties against oxygen and carbon dioxide. Additional characteristics such as catalytic activity, sensing, reinforcing mechanical barrier action, and gas separation activity also get enhanced due to the incorporation of biopolymers with HNT. HNTs furnish their lumen for loading active agents on the interior as well as the exterior surface for the release of desired components. The economic advantages of HNT with biopolymers make them feasible to use, contradicting other synthetic polymers. The versatile applicability of the HNT-biopolymer complex is depicted in the review based on its properties. The non-toxicity and high utility of HNT as nanocomposites in different packaging materials provide ideas for new research in the field, which still lacks acceptance of the fact that nanomaterials as multipurpose bionanomaterials. This review enumerates in detail the recent advances of engineered/modified HNT with different biomolecules that have major applications in the processing, preservation, and packing of food products. Also, the major applications of polymers in food nanoscience and biotechnology, along with the effect of engineered HNT on food composition and nutrition, will be discussed in detail.