Development of chitosan-based food packaging films supplemented with sophorolipids and swiss chard to enhance food safety and shelf-life

• Autor(a) principal: Couto, Mariana Pestana Barros Fagulha
• Data de Publicação: 2023
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10362/159280
• topic: Active and Intelligent Packaging; Sustainable Packaging; Biofilm Prevention; Natural Antioxidants; Biosurfactants; Biopolymers; Domínio/Área Científica::Engenharia e Tecnologia::Engenharia dos Materiais

Packaging is essential to ensure food quality and safety and avoid food waste. Nowadays, the packaging industry faces the emergent need to shift from conventional petroleum-based approaches to more sustainable solutions. Moreover, several outbreaks of foodborne diseases have been linked to biofilms, raising concerns in the food industry since bacteria and their biofilms can attach to a wide range of food contact materials. With this work novel chitosan (CS)-based films supplemented with glycerol (GLY), swiss chard (SC) and sophorolipids (SLs) were developed to extend product’s shelf-life and promote public health. The SC extract not only presented antioxidant activity but also the ability to change colour depending on pH. Regarding the addition of GLY it was possible to elect 25% of GLY as the ideal concentration. Films with SC extract presented increased UV light barrier properties and tensile tests showed the ability of SC extract to act as a plasticiser whereas SLs contributed to more brittle films. Produced films presented good water vapour permeability values where SC addition highly contributed to the increase of permeability. Films incorporating SLs were able to inhibit S. aureus and E. faecalis showing inhibition halos. Additionally, the combination of SLs and SC extract led to S. aureus and E. faecalis biofilm reduction. This investigation revealed the potential of the mentioned additives to improve chitosan’s properties for the development of novel and more sustainable solutions for the food packaging industry to extend product’s shelf-life and prevent foodborne diseases.