Release kinetics of fungicidal antimicrobials into packaged foods

Abstract

AbstractThis article presents the release kinetics (RK) of a fungicidal antimicrobial agent (AMA), potassium sorbate (PS), that prolongs the shelf life of packaged food. The effects of PS release are explored on peanut and fresh bread to determine the effects of PS on Aspergillus niger (AN) microbe growth. The AN was cultured in a potato dextrose agar (PDA) medium to obtain AMA activity on the film. AMA activity of PS incorporated into cellulose acetate (CA) based film was tested on peanuts and fresh bread for an extended period of time. The RK of PS from the films was obtained by studying the de‐swelling properties of PS loaded film at room temperature (24°C) and at elevated temperature (37°C). The diffusion coefficients of PS released through the film network were obtained to be between 8.32 × 10−10 to 7.3 × 10−7 m2/s. The release exponents (n) of PS from the film occurred by anomalous transport with n‐values ranging from 0.13 to 0.16 at 24°C and 0.5 to 0.89 at 37°C. The average flux released from the CA film was consistent with the percentage PS release from the CA film showing that modeling the effective diffusion of PS from a porous media is feasible. The released PS was potent enough to inhibit the growth of AN for a week then over a period of 2 years. Thereafter, the implications of the results in designing smart food packaging for enhanced food preservation were discussed.