Enhancement of mechanical, barrier, and functional properties of chitosan film reinforced with glycerol, COS, and gallic acid for active food packaging
Shuva Bhowmik, Dominic Agyei, Azam Ali
Abstract
The demand for eco-friendly and natural food packaging materials has sparked considerable interest in the research and development of sustainable active packaging materials. In this study, a chitosan-based film was developed using glycerol as a plasticiser, chitooligosaccharide (COS) as an additive, and gallic acid as a cross-linking agent. The physical, barrier, mechanical, morphological, thermal, and functional properties of fabricated films were measured. The bio-composite film showed significantly lower moisture content (from 24.28 to 17.01%), water solubility (from 41.56% to 31.03%), water vapour permeability (14.63 to 9.79 × 10−9 gm−1s−1Pa−1), and light transmittance (from 63.67% to 21.71%) compared to neat chitosan film. Furthermore, the bio-composite film exhibited higher tensile strength (57.66 MPa) and elongation at break (88.76%), smooth microstructure, strong DPPH and ABTS radicals scavenging capacity, and good antimicrobial activity towards E. coli, L. innocua, and S. cerevisiae, and non-toxic to HaCaT cells indicating promising potential for use in sustainable active food packaging.