Sustainable Development of Biodegradable Antimicrobial Electrospun Membranes for Active Food Packaging and Economic Analysis

Electrospinning is a much-explored technique in the membrane fabrication field, particularly in active food packaging. Despite the widespread use of this technique, there remains a significant gap in the literature regarding the actual economic evaluation of the viability of biomaterials compared to traditional plastics. This study seeks to fill this gap by developing electrospun, vanillin-loaded zein membranes to evaluate their efficacy in terms of antimicrobial activity, biodegradability, and economic viability. From a sustainability perspective, the newly developed membranes show an impressive ability to inhibit yeast growth by 75%, with complete degradation observed in only 7 days. This underscores their potential to mitigate environmental impact and promote environmentally friendly packaging solutions to reduce both plastic waste and food loss while maintaining safety and quality. However, the economic sustainability of these membranes is still an open challenge. It becomes clear that the main bottleneck does not lie in the innovative production technology, but rather in the prices of raw materials, particularly natural additives. This underscores the need for supportive measures from institutions to incentivize the transition to sustainable packaging alternatives and the importance of the full circularity concept. This work shows that achieving the European goal of zero plastic waste requires concrete efforts.