Natural hydrocolloids as biocompatible composite materials for food applications

Consumer demands for more sustainable approaches towards traditional food-related products made natural hydrocolloids a focus of the modern food industry. Featuring biocompatibility, availability and unique physicochemical properties, hydrocolloids are infiltrating the trending production of guilt-free food alternatives and biodegradable functional food packaging. Recent research has highlighted the challenges in creating these products, which can be solved by a deeper understanding of the interactions between the components of a complex hydrocolloid-based mixture. This review summarizes the applications of natural hydrocolloids as promising multifunctional materials for innovative technologies that prioritize safety and sustainability of food-related products. It also provides an overview of their features with a focus on the gelling behaviour and ways to improve the hydrocolloid matrix to produce the materials with the desired texture, smell, appearance and functional properties.