Development of starch film to realize the value-added utilization of starch in food and biomedicine

Food packaging materials are ubiquitous and various methods are employed to degrade based on the pursuit of greenness and safety, but there are still contaminating components. Therefore, the development of biodegradable edible films to replace plastics as food packaging materials is the future trend. Starch has good biodegradability, and its characteristics make it value-added and utilized, and starch films are continuously developed in order to replace plastic films. How to better improve the performance of starch film is the bottleneck problem to be solved urgently in the implementation of biodegradable starch-based film to replace refractory materials in the future. The introduction of polysaccharides into starch-based films improved their mechanical strength, stretchability, plasticity, thermal stability, water vapor resistance, antioxidant activity, and antimicrobial activity. In this paper, the latest progress of polysaccharide-starch-based edible composite film was reviewed. The utilization of polysaccharides isolated from plant, animal, and microbial sources to improve the properties of starch films are summarized, and key challenges are highlighted. Then its potential application, future research direction and the possibility of replacing plastic packaging were also summarized. It aims to realize the value-added utilization of starch, provide reference for industry innovation, and is of great significance to promote the sustainable development of biodegradable starch-based films in the future.