The work aims to produce and characterise biobased and compostable foams based on gelatine for packaging applications. The gelatine foams were made by mechanical foaming and drying in surrounding environment. The effects of gelatine content, surfactant content and foaming temperature on the maximum expansion ratio (MER), shrinkage, density, structure and compression properties of foams were investigated. In addition, the thermal conductivity of samples prepared with different contents of gelatine was studied. The three factors studied significantly affected the foam properties and structure. MER and shrinkage were viscosity-dependent and considerably affected the foam density, mechanical properties and thermal conductivity. An increase in gelatine content resulted in denser foams and higher compression strength due to lower MER. An increase of surfactant content from 0.75 wt.% to 1.5 wt.% caused a slight decrease in density due to an increase in foamability. However, further surfactant addition up to 3 wt.% led to denser foams due to considerable increase of viscosity and MER decrease. Higher foaming temperature led to higher MER, but because the liquid foam had a longer stability time, the shrinkage degree was larger and foam density was higher. The gelatine foams exhibit promising properties for being an environmentally friendly alternative to conventional low-density plastics foams (<30 kg/m3). The low thermal conductivity [0.038 ~ 0.039 W/(m k)] and relatively low shrinkage of gelatine foams are successfully achieved.