Study of Physical, Mechanical, and Barrier Edible Film Based on Yellow Sweet Potato with Additional Glycerol and Palm Oil

Abstract

The increasing use of plastic packaging can pollute the environment because it cannot be decomposed naturally. Therefore, alternative packaging materials are needed that can reduce these problems, such as edible films. The main material for this study is yellow sweet potato starch. Generally, edible films made with starch have a more compact physical character. But less flexible, brittle, and not resistant to moisture. Therefore, it is necessary to add glycerol as a plasticizer and palm oil as a barrier. This study aims to determine the effect of the concentration of glycerol and palm oil on the characteristics of edible films. This study used the factorial Randomized Block Design method with two factors, namely the concentration of glycerol (5 %, 10 %, 15 %) and palm oil (1 %, 3 %, 5 %). Variables observed in this study include thickness, solubility, transparency, brightness, yellowness, tensile strength, elongation, and WVTR. The results showed that the best treatment was 10 % glycerol concentration and 1 % palm oil concentration with a thickness value of 0.21 mm; solubility in water 29.48 %; transparency 1.30 A546 mm–1; brightness 60.27; yellowish 13.80; tensile strength 0.47 MPa; elongation 58.48 %; and WVTR 4.28 gm-2 d-1.