Abstract: Edible films represent an important research direction in food packaging. In particular, those prepared with polysaccharides are highly favored because of their good uniformity and transparency. Today, research efforts are focused on endowing edible films with a wider range of biological activities such as antioxidant and antimicrobial in addition to improving their applicability, thus presenting promising application prospects. The main components, properties, filmforming mechanisms and biological activities of edible films prepared with polysaccharides are reviewed in this paper. Furthermore, future application prospects are also discussed.

Key words: edible film, polysaccharide, film forming mechanism