Over recent years, a huge amount of non-degradable plastic
waste has been generated, leaving behind an undesirable
human footprint. This environmental problem is worsened
by the fact that there is a continuous growth in the demand
for plastic products. As a consequence, naturally derived
biodegradable polymers (bioplastics) are attracting growing
interest as materials that could reduce the environmental
impact, this waste, while themselves being made from renewable
sources (Shand et al., 2009). Specifically, since 2011, the
market for eco-friendly bioplastics has grown exponentially
(Byun and Teck Kim, 2014). Proteins (from various sources
such as whey, egg, blood meal, soybean, gluten, pea, etc.)
and polysaccharides have been proposed as attractive raw
materials for the production of bioplastics for a range of
applications (di Gioia and Guilbert, 1999; Pommet et al., 2003;
Ribotta et al., 2012; Chao et al., 2013). In order to reduce