Fortification of pullulan/cassava starch-based edible films incorporated with LC-EO nanoparticles and the application for beef meat preservation.

A multipurpose food packaging film was created using pullulan and cassava starch as bases and sodium caseinate/zein-loaded Litsea cubeba essential oil nanoparticles as fillers. The study showed that the PS, PDI, Zeta potential and encapsulation efficiency of LC-EO in SC/ZNPs1% were 206.34 nm, 0.28 %, -25.73 mV, and 89.69 %, respectively, indicating even distribution and good stability. FTIR and XRD analysis confirmed hydrogen bond formation and structural changes between nanoparticle-forming materials, while SEM analysis revealed uniform distribution and spherical morphology of SC/ZNPs1%.The study found that the psc4% film showed improved mechanical properties, including an increase in elongation at break from 14.76 % to 19.30 %, and enhanced barrier characteristics, despite a slight decrease in tensile strength from 28.53 MPa to 7.77 MPa. The pcs4% film enhanced hydrophobic characteristics from 39.06 % to 20.91 % and showed inhibition against Staphylococcus aureus and E. coli O157:H7 at 28 mm and 23 mm inhibition zones, respectively, with improved antioxidant properties (76.16 %), effectively reducing bacterial populations, color, texture, and pH change and lipid oxidation in fresh beef for up to seven days. The psc4% film is a promising new active antibacterial and antioxidant food-packaging material.

Fabrication and characterization of pullulan/tapioca starch-based antibacterial films incorporated with Litsea cubeba essential oil for meat preservation.

Active packaging is a novel technology that utilizes active materials to interact with products and the environment, improving food shelf life. The purpose of this work was to fabricate a multifunctional film using Litsea cubeba essential oil (LC-EO) (1 %, 3 %, 5 %, and 7 %) as the active ingredient and pullulan(P)/tapioca starch (TS) as the carrier material. Adding essential oil improves the films properties, such as barrier ability, anti-oxidant, and antibacterial activity. However, tensile strength (TS) and elongation at break (EAB) were slightly reduced from 28.94 MPa to 11.29 MPa and 15.36 % to 12.19 %. The developed PTS3% films showed the best performance in mechanical properties, especially EAB (14.26 %), WVP (3.26 %) and OP (3.13 %), respectively. The inhibitory zone diameters in the agar-well diffusion test were 18.59 mm for Staphylococcus aureus and 17.32 mm for Escherichia coli. Further study was conducted to compare the preservation effects of film with low-density polyethylene bag (LDPE) on chilled beef. Remarkably, PTS3% film decreased the bacterial population in beef meat while maintaining the pH, color, texture, and TBARS levels within an acceptable range for ten days of storage at 4 °C rather than in a low-density polyethylene bag. The outcomes indicated the potential of PTS3% films in food packaging applications.