Hydroxyapatite for food packaging applications: translating evidence from biomedical and environmental research

The increasing demand for sustainable, functional food packaging has heightened interest in bio-based additives that can enhance material performance while maintaining consumer safety. Hydroxyapatite (HA), extensively studied in biomedical and environmental contexts for its physicochemical stability, ion-exchange capacity, and biocompatibility, has recently been proposed as a prospective additive for food packaging systems. This review critically examines the feasibility of translating insights from biomedical and environmental studies to packaging applications by systematically analyzing peer-reviewed literature published between 2021 and 2025 following PRISMA guidelines. The synthesized evidence indicates that HA incorporation, typically at low filler loadings, has been reported to improve tensile strength and thermal stability, with polymer permeability improvements of up to several tens of percent observed in previous studies. Environmental studies further demonstrate HA’s high adsorption capacity and ion-exchange behavior, whereas biomedical research provides indirect evidence of biological compatibility and controlled interaction with active agents. Nevertheless, direct experimental evidence in food packaging remains limited, including polymer–filler incompatibility, nanoparticle migration risks, and regulatory compliance. This review, therefore, positions hydroxyapatite as a prospective rather than validated packaging additive and outlines critical research priorities, including quantitative migration testing, formulation optimization, and regulatory evaluation, required to assess its practical feasibility in safe and sustainable food packaging applications.

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