Abstract
Environmental consciousness as well as individual”™s demand for ready to eat food, recently, has changed the trends in food packaging leading to the development of biodegradable and edible packaging. Emulsified edible films have better transparency, superior mechanical properties and provide barriers to water and other atmospheric gases. Edible films if not consumed, biodegrad chemically. In present study, edible films were, initially, prepared using Chitosan and Aloe vera at different concentrations. Films were then subjected to physical and mechanical testing. Films with 20% Aloe vera had low thickness as compared to films with no Aloe vera. These films also had superior mechanical properties and lower water vapor permeability. Films with 20% Aloe vera were, then, selected and beeswax was dispersed in Chitosan-Aloe vera solution at concentration upto 2.0% followed by film preparation through casting technique. Thickness and water vapor permeability were observed to be improved with increase in concentration of beeswax. Tensile strength of edible films was also improved 1.3 times when concentration of beeswax increased from 0.5 to 2.0%. Percentage elongation decreased with increase in beeswax concentration in the emulsified films. No change in particle size was observed with change in concentration of beeswax. Emulsions were also stable at room temperatures. Decrease in transparency of emulsified edible films was observed with increase in beeswax content in the emulsified films. In addition, cost analysis of the films proved them reasonable to be used as an alternate of synthetic packaging materials.
Highlights
Today, increasing the awareness of consumers about natural based food products with no chemical preservatives has led to explore innovative methods in preserving food to extend shelf life
Films thickness Thickness of chitosan-based and emulsified films was observed to be significantly affected by the concentration of aloe vera and beeswax respectively at 5% probability (p
Aloe vera and chitosan with beeswax from 0% to 2.0% resulted in a slight increase in the thickness of the films at S52 but continuous reduction in the film thickness was observed from 131 μm at S52 to 100 μm at S54 (Figure 2)
Summary
Today, increasing the awareness of consumers about natural based food products with no chemical preservatives has led to explore innovative methods in preserving food to extend shelf life. The number of papers devoted to the developing of storage methodologies are on an increased and amongst them, edible coating has drawn considerable attention in recent years due to accentuated application of edible material in packaging over chemical types. In the technology of edible coating, the surface of food commodity is commonly covered by a thin layer of edible material; acting as a barrier to confine the gaseous movements and moisture transfer, control respiratory rate, and thereby reduce weight loss during storage (Sogvar, Koushesh Saba and Emamifar, 2016). A coat forming agent such as Aloe vera might have natural antioxidant and antimicrobial properties (Vieira et al, 2016) or be the carrier of those (Koushesh Saba and Sogvar, 2016). Being an herbal medicator extensively consumed across the globe, Aloe vera has represented a long history of functional and remedial activities since ancient times through its broad spectrum of bioactive components (Guo and Mei, 2016; Pothuraju, et al, 2015)
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