At present, people more actively pursuing biodegradable-based food packaging to lower the environmental problems of plastic-based packaging. Starch could become a promising alternative to plastic because of its properties (easily available, nontoxic, tasteless, biodegradable, ecofriendly, and edible). This review article is focused mainly on the impact of the properties of starch-based biodegradable films, such as their thickness, morphology, and optical, water-barrier, mechanical, oxygen-barrier, antioxidant, and antimicrobial properties, after the incorporation of additives, and how such films fulfill the demands of the manufacturing of biodegradable and edible food-based film with preferable performance. The incorporation of additives in starch-based films is largely explained by its functioning as a filler, as shown via a reduction in water and oxygen permeability, increased thickness, and better mechanical properties. Additives also showed antimicrobial and antioxidant properties in the films/coatings, which would positively impact the shelf life of coated or wrapped food material.
The accumulation of micro/nanoplastics (MNPs) in ecosystems poses tremendous environmental risks for terrestrial and aquat-ic organisms. Designing rapid, field-deployable, and sensitive devices for assessing the potential risks of MNPs pollution is critical. However, current techniques for MNPs detection have limited effectiveness. Here, we design a wireless portable de-vice that allows rapid, sensitive, and on-site detection of MNPs, followed by remote data processing via machine learn-ing algorithms for quantitative fluorescence imaging. We uti-lized a supramolecular labeling strategy, employing lumines-cent metal-phenolic networks composed of zirconium ions, tannic acid, and rhodamine B, to efficiently label various sizes of MNPs (e.g., 50 nm – 10 μm). Results showed that our de-vice can quantify MNPs as low as 330 microplastics and 3.08×106 nanoplastics in less than 20 min. We demonstrated the applicability of the device to real-world samples through determination of MNPs released from plastic cups after hot water and flow induction, and nanoplastics in tap water. More-over, the device is user-friendly and operative by untrained personnel to conduct data processing on APP remotely. The analytical platform integrating quantitative imaging, custom-ized data processing, decision tree model and low-cost analysis ($0.015 per assay) has great potential for high-throughput screening of MNPs in agrifood and environmental systems.