From traditional paper to nanocomposite films: Analysis of global research into cellulose for food packaging

This bibliometric study encompasses all publications between 2000 and 2020 on the production of cellulose-containing food packaging, often proposed as an alternative to petro-based materials. Results show a fast-growing interest in this area, especially during last decade, with 1029 documents published high-impact journals. In topic where countries such Italy, Sweden Spain high scientific per capita, most influential groups are based European institutions (Università degli Studi di Perugia Grenoble Institute Technology). Among more than 7000 keywords, those co-occurrence were analyzed identify not only important research areas, but also current knowledge gaps. It was found that composites which cellulose is reinforcing material, commonly nanofibers or nanocrystals, becoming frequent cellulose-based packaging. The matrix is, generally speaking, another biopolymer, their potential replace conventional thermoplastic materials remains under question.