DEVELOPMENT AND CHARACTERIZATION OF BIODEGRADABLE FOOD PACKAGING FILMS FROM FOOD INDUSTRIAL WASTES.

The demand of food packaging has increased along with the food consumption. Among all types of packaging materials plastics are most commonly used owing to their good mechanical, barrier and permeability characteristics. However, plastics are totally non-biodegradable and their raw materials come from non-renewable resources. This has urged the researchers to explore biodegradable food packaging films from renewable resources. Natural polymers such as carbohydrate, starch, cellulose, hemicellulose or pectin can be effectively used for the synthesis of biodegradable food packaging films. Fruits and vegetables processing industries are producing huge amount of waste in the form of peels, seeds and pomace. Being rich source of biopolymers, these wastes can serve as a good source of raw material for synthesis of biodegradable packaging films. In the present research, three types of food industrial wastes (potato, citrus and apple residues) were used with varying glycerol concentrations to develop biodegradable food packaging films. The prepared films were analyzed on the basis of their thickness, water vapor permeability (WVP), opacity, mechanical properties and photo oxidation. Results showed that potato residue film was thicker (0.17 mm) and more opaque (97.45 AU nm) in comparison with citrus and apple residue films. Results for mechanical properties showed that potato residue film possessed greater tensile (8.99 MPa) and puncture strength (13.78 N). However, it exhibited lower elongation at break (9.54 %) compared to citrus and apple residue films. While citrus residue film showed higher elastic modulus compared to potato and apple residue films. Water vapor permeability of all the prepared films was comparable. Increased glycerol concentration in film forming solutions resulted in the increase in thickness, opacity, water vapor permeability and elongation at break of all the films. However, increased glycerol concentration caused a decrease in tensile strength, elastic modulus and puncture strength of all the films. The structure of organic compounds present in prepared biodegradable films was evaluated using Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) technique. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]