**9. Conclusion**

This review assembles the information about the need for the edible food packaging in dairy and food industry. Edible packaging can be used in two forms, i.e. film and coatings. Based on raw material, edible film and coatings are classified (polysaccharide, lipid and protein films and coating). Here, the importance of films and coating additives is also discussed, which helps to enhance the shelf life of contained food product by retarding the growth of microorganisms and bacteria, these additives also help to improve the mechanical properties such as a barrier, various strength. Different additives have their own function or effect on film and coating. The edible film has various methods of manufacturing such as casting, thermoplastic, extrusion, etc., and coating can be applied by using methods such as dipping, brushing, enrobing, panning, etc.; these methods are used to form a uniform layer on the food material and help to control the physical, mechanical and biological hazard effect on food. This review also confirms that dipping (coating method) and casting film-forming methods are the cheapest and easy methods to use at the laboratory level. Edible film and coating have various functional properties such as colour property, mechanical property, barrier property, edibility and biodegradability, etc.; this property makes the edible film and coating superior to the commercial packaging of food. Nowadays, edible film and coating have various uses/applications in the food as well dairy industry due to its positive effect on contained food. Different edible films such as starch-chitosan film contain natural antimicrobial used to improve shelf life of various cheeses. Coatings such as zein-based coating for mode cheese and nano-emulsionbased edible coating for low-fat cut cheese are used to enhance its shelf life. Edible film and coating are also used in the meat and meat product industry, deep-fat fried industry and bakery industry. From this review, it is concluded that the use of edible film and coating is suitable for dairy as well as various food industries and helps to reduce industrial waste and environmental pollution because of their edibility and biodegradability.
