Bacterial cellulose is often used as a thickening agent and a stabiliser in food products, while it can also be used with the aim to reduce calories in dietary products.
Bacterial cellulose also plays a role in product packaging, particularly food, in order to avoid or reduce use of plastic packaging. In the field of medicine, the most interesting use of bacterial cellulose is wound treatment in case of burns and as implants or as replacement structures for the cardiovascular system, digestive tract, and urinary tract.
Bacterial cellulose is pure, strong, with high water retention capacity and is very mouldable. In addition, some properties of produced cellulose may be controlled, which is particularly required for uses in the field of medicine, food science, cosmetics, paper production as well as textile industry.
Production of bacterial cellulose is highly expensive; the major costs are allocated to the synthetic media, where the carbon source account for 30% of the total price. Revalorization of food waste in this area is highly prospective and sustainable approach. They utilize facile, low-cost procedure, without use of enzymes and acids to transform the food waste into new culturing medium. The newly developed extract is sufficient for bacteria, to produce 100% cellulose membrane, without need of other supplements and complex media. The resulting cellulose membrane is ultrapure, it has high wet strength, high water holding capacity, biocompatibility and ultrafine nanofibrous morphology, appealing in areas such as medicine, pharmacy, food packaging, textile industry, etc.