Biopolymers Produced by Lactic Acid Bacteria: Characterization and Food Application.

Content Provider	Europe PMC
Author	Nicolescu, Cristina Mihaela Bumbac, Marius Buruleanu, Claudia Lavinia Popescu, Elena Corina Stanescu, Sorina Geanina Georgescu, Andreea Antonia Toma, Siramona Maria
Editor	Romero García, Alberto
Copyright Year	2023
Abstract	Plants, animals, bacteria, and food waste are subjects of intensive research, as they are biological sources for the production of biopolymers. The topic links to global challenges related to the extended life cycle of products, and circular economy objectives. A severe and well-known threat to the environment, the non-biodegradability of plastics obliges different stakeholders to find legislative and technical solutions for producing valuable polymers which are biodegradable and also exhibit better characteristics for packaging products. Microorganisms are recognized nowadays as exciting sources for the production of biopolymers with applications in the food industry, package production, and several other fields. Ubiquitous organisms, lactic acid bacteria (LAB) are well studied for the production of exopolysaccharides (EPS), but much less as producers of polylactic acid (PLA) and polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs). Based on their good biodegradability feature, as well as the possibility to be obtained from cheap biomass, PLA and PHAs polymers currently receive increased attention from both research and industry. The present review aims to provide an overview of LAB strains’ characteristics that render them candidates for the biosynthesis of EPS, PLA, and PHAs, respectively. Further, the biopolymers’ features are described in correlation with their application in different food industry fields and for food packaging. Having in view that the production costs of the polymers constitute their major drawback, alternative solutions of biosynthesis in economic terms are discussed.
Journal	Polymers
Volume Number	15
PubMed Central reference number	PMC10058920
Issue Number	6
PubMed reference number	36987319
e-ISSN	20734360
DOI	10.3390/polym15061539
Language	English
Publisher	MDPI
Publisher Date	2023-03-20
Access Restriction	Open
Rights License	Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). © 2023 by the authors.
Subject Keyword	lactic acid bacteria polylactic acid polyhydroxyalkanoates exopolysaccharides food application food packaging
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article
Subject	Chemistry Polymers and Plastics