Curcumin and silver nanoparticles loaded antibacterial multifunctional pectin/gelatin films for food packaging applications

Abstract

Renewable biomass-based materials have a huge potential to replace petroleum-based products in food packaging. Herein, pectin/gelatin films loaded with curcumin and silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) are prepared by solution-pouring technology to serve as antimicrobial multifunctional food packaging films. AgNPs and curcumin are found to equally distribute in the films. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) reveal the hydrogen bonding and electrostatic interaction among curcumin, AgNPs, pectin and gelatin. The composite films show good antioxidant activity, mechanical performance, hydrophobicity and antibacterial ability. The films of P-GCA 0.5 showed 99.57 ± 0.16 % and 100 % inhibition against E. coli and S. aureus, respectively. The films also demonstrate excellent water vapor barrier qualities. In addition, the composite films possess pH-responsive color change behaviors from yellow (pH 3–8) to light red (pH 8–9) to dark red (pH 11–12), which is suitable for monitoring the freshness of shrimp packaging based on pH changes during deterioration process. As sustainable biomass-based materials, the multifunctional composite films are promising in intelligent food packaging applications.