Recent advances in gelatin-cellulose composite films for food packaging applications

Biopolymer films have attracted great attentions and been used as food packaging due to the severe environmental pollution caused by synthetic plastic-based packaging. Gelatin and cellulose are the most commonly used biopolymers, which play a crucial role in the field of bio-based films. Various emerging gelatin-cellulose composite films have been prepared to be used as food packaging for their excellent degradability, edibility, and film-forming properties. This review aims to provide a comprehensive review of the research in the past five years on gelatin-cellulose composite films. Different films including gelatin-cellulose derivatives films, gelatin-cellulose nanomaterials composite films and gelatin-cellulose-functional material films have been reviewed. The excellent properties including mechanical, antibacterial, antioxidant, color, barrier and thermal of gelatin-cellulose composite films have been discussed. Applications of the composite films in preservation and sensing of various foods have been summarized. Despite challenges, the gelatin-cellulose composite films show promise in sustainable food packaging.