Food packaging plays an imperative role in the food processing sector by safeguarding foods from their point of harvesting until the moment of consumption. In recent years, biopolymers have attracted the attention of the scientific community as an alternative to conventional packaging materials. Among the available biopolymer sources, a lot of the focus has been on polysaccharides due to their superior barrier properties against gases, oils, and odors and their processing versatility. Moreover, there is also a growing interest in aliphatic polyester as a potential replacement for petrochemical-based synthetic plastics. Both polysaccharides and aliphatic polyesters have gained popularity in sustainable food packaging due to their unique characteristics, including their low cost, availability, biodegradability, gas and moisture barrier properties, film-forming capabilities, excellent heat resistance, and ability to be processed into films, trays, and coatings. This review highlights the structural features, properties, and recent advancements of several vital polysaccharides, namely, starch, chitosan, cellulose, alginate, pectin, carrageenan, and aliphatic polyesters, including polylactic acid (PLA) and polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) for developing packaging materials, and their applications in the food industry. Conventional packaging and future perspectives of biopolymer-based food packaging are also comprehensively covered in this review.

The rapid increase in the production of powdered milk–tea blends is driven by a growing awareness of the presence of highly nutritious bioactive compounds and consumer demand for convenient beverages. However, the lack of literature on the impact of heat-induced component interactions during processing hinders the production of high-quality milk–tea powders. The production process of milk–tea powder blends includes the key steps of pasteurization, evaporation, and spray drying. Controlling heat-induced interactions, such as protein–protein, protein–carbohydrate, protein–polyphenol, carbohydrate–polyphenol, and carbohydrate–polyphenol, during pasteurization, concentration, and evaporation is essential for producing a high-quality milk–tea powder with favorable physical, structural, rheological, sensory, and nutritional qualities. Adjusting production parameters, such as the type and the composition of ingredients, processing methods, and processing conditions, is a great way to modify these interactions between components in the formulation, and thereby, provide improved properties and storage stability for the final product. Therefore, this review comprehensively discusses how molecular-level interactions among proteins, carbohydrates, and polyphenols are affected by various unit operations during the production of milk–tea powders.

This study investigates the impact of substituting lactose with maltodextrin in milk–tea formulations to enhance their physicochemical and structural properties. Various lactose-to-maltodextrin ratios (100:0, 90:10, 85:15, 80:20, 75:25) were evaluated in both post-pasteurized and concentrated skim milk–tea (SM-T) and whole milk–tea (WM-T) formulations. Concentration significantly improved the zeta potential, pH, and browning index in both SM-T and WM-T compared to pasteurization. L:M ratios of 90:10 and 75:25 in WM-T and 90:10 and 80:20 in SM-T showed higher phenolic preservation after concentration due to structural changes resulting from the addition of maltodextrin and water removal during prolonged heating. The preservation effect of phenolic components in both WM-T and SM-T is governed by many mechanisms including pH stabilization, zeta potential modulation, protein interactions, complex formation, and encapsulation effects. Therefore, optimizing milk–tea stability and phenolic preservation through L:M ratio adjustments provides a promising approach for enhancing milk–tea properties.

Food packaging plays an imperative role in the food processing sector by safeguarding foods from their point of harvesting until the moment of consumption. In recent years, biopolymers have attracted the attention of the scientific community as an alternative to conventional packaging materials, reducing the negative environmental impact. Among the available biopolymer sources, a lot of focus has been directed toward polysaccharides due to their superior barrier qualities against gases, oil, and odour and their processing versatility. Moreover, there is a growing interest in aliphatic polyesters as a potential replacement for petrochemical-based synthetic plastics. Both polysaccharides and aliphatic polyesters have gained popularity in sustainable food packaging due to their unique characteristics, including low cost, readily available, biodegradability, gas and moisture barrier qualities, film-forming capabilities, excellent heat resistance, and ability to be processed into films, trays, and coatings. This review highlights the structural features, properties and recent advancements of several vital polysaccharides, namely starch, chitosan, cellulose, alginate, pectin, carrageenan, and aliphatic polyesters, including polylactic acid (PLA) and polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) for developing packaging materials and their applications in the food industry. Conventional packaging and future perspectives of biopolymer-based food packaging are also comprehensively covered in this review.

Milk tea is popular for its distinct taste and nutritional benefits. While adjusting the casein-to-whey protein ratio is commonly used to enhance milk-based formulas, its effects on milk tea quality are under-researched. This study investigates the effect of varying casein-to-whey (C: W; 80:20, 70:30, 60:40) and lactose-to-maltodextrin ratio (L:M; 90:10, 80:20, 75:25) on physicochemical and structural properties of milk-tea, including both post-pasteurized and concentrated skim milk-tea (SM-T) and fat filled milk-tea (FM-T) formulations. The primary focus is optimizing the retention of total phenolic content (TPC) to enhance the nutritional value of these formulations. The results showed that specific combinations of ratios significantly enhanced the TPC in the milk-tea such as FM-T with L:M ratios of 90:10 and 75:25, combined with C:W ratios of 70:30, and skim milk-tea formulations with L:M ratios of 90:10 and 80:20, combined with C:W ratios of 80:20 and 70:30, respectively. This enhancement was attributed to various mechanisms, including maltodextrin-phenolic interaction, enhanced protein-phenolic binding with whey proteins, the synergistic/combined effects of maltodextrin and whey proteins, fat-maltodextrin-whey protein interactions, and increased protein structural stability with higher maltodextrin and whey protein levels. Therefore, optimizing milk-tea stability and phenolic enhancement through L:M and C:W ratio adjustments provides a promising approach for enhancing final milk-tea properties.

The mung bean ( Vigna radiata ), guava ( Psidium guajava ), and bitter gourd ( Momordica charantia ) are notable legumes, fruits, and vegetables that are widely cultivated in Sri Lanka and are well‐known for having high levels of dietary fiber. They have a high tendency to utilize their dried powders or extracted fiber concentrates to develop dietary fiber–incorporated functional foods to enhance the consumption of dietary fiber. Thus, in this study, plant sources underwent drying using three frequently practiced drying methods in Sri Lanka, hot‐air drying, heat pump drying, and sun drying, to investigate the impacts of the application of drying methods on dietary fiber composition, along with the proximate composition, functional properties, and color characteristics of dried samples. The results revealed that the hot‐air drying preserved the highest soluble dietary fiber content in all plant sources (mung bean: 4.25%, guava: 8.12%, and bitter gourd: 10.95%). Sun drying imparted the highest insoluble dietary fiber contents, particularly in guava (38.65%) and bitter gourd (51.04%), whereas bitter gourd showed the highest total dietary fiber (56.65%) with sun drying. Mung bean had a superior crude protein content of 32.57% under heat pump drying but was least effective in retaining guava protein (4.19%). The crude protein content varies considerably across the plant sources and drying methods, while the crude fat and ash contents show no significant variations across the drying methods. Heat pump drying maintained superior water‐holding capacities, oil‐holding capacities, and swelling water capacities in all plant sources, enhancing their functional properties. Color analysis of the dried plant sources revealed that hot‐air‐dried samples had the darkest coloration, whereas heat pump drying maintained the best natural hues of the dried materials. Our findings provide valuable insights for optimizing drying methods to enhance the important nutritional, functional, and visual qualities of dietary fiber–rich plant sources.