Alginate is a term related to a group of polysaccharides produced from brown seaweeds, which have special importance for different industries (food, textile, pharmaceutical, cosmetic), attributed to its capacity to form strong gels in presence of calcium cations (Ca+2). Sodium alginate is the most common and commercialized form of alginate and its applications in the food industry now a day is bringing advances in the development of new and innovative biomaterials with unique features such as a barrier properties against weight loss caused by dehydration in high humidity products, material carrier of antimicrobial and prebiotic compounds, among others, with the aim to keep foodstuff quality trough storage. In the present review was summarize information regarding incidence of different polymers, biocompounds, additives and gelation process on the production of edible films based on sodium alginate and their perspectives in packaging engineering.