Development of Single Layer Edible Film Composite from Chitosan Nanoparticles-based as Fruit Packaging Materials

Abstract

Nowadays, food packaging materials are dominated by synthetic plastic materials that are based on crude oil, e.g. polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), and polyvinylchloride (PVC). These plastics are categorized as non-degradable materials, and when plastic waste is mishandled, it will harm the environment. Furthermore, Bisphenol A (BPA), commonly used for strengthening plastic properties, might contaminate the foods wrapped in those mentioned plastic materials and adversely affect human health. One of the alternative solutions to reduce crude oil-based plastics as food packaging is edible film packaging. Edible film packaging on a biopolymer basis can be applied as food packaging to replace synthetic plastics and maintain fruit quality at the same time. This research aims to conduct modification and characterization of edible film chitosan-based for food packaging applications. In this research, the composite film was produced from chitosan nanoparticles and cellulose nanocrystal composite and mixed with a variation of plasticizer (glycerol) of 10% w/w in concentration and a variation of KMnO 4 concentration. Mixing of composite material was done at 50 o C with an interpretation of ultrasonic irradiation processes. Then, the composite was characterized by UTM, FTIR. The result showed that the optimum condition was CNC variation by 5% and glycerol by 10%. It gave a tensile strength result of 464.1 MPa. and 266.3 MPa on a nano chitosan-based film. Adding active agent KMnO 4 by as much as 8% can reduce the tensile strength value by 46.3%.