Development of cinnamaldehyde loaded-alginate based film for food packaging

The increased incidence of food spoilage has exacerbated the need to enhance the protection of processed foods. Food packaging incorporated with bioactive components can be exploited to improve the security of food products from microbiological contamination. Thus, this study aimed to generate an alginate-based film loaded with cinnamaldehyde for use in food packaging. Aspergillus niger ATCC 9029 was utilised to assess the biodegradability of the film. The fungal growth on the plate with alginate film was evident after 21 days of incubation period and 29.7% of weight loss was monitored. The mechanical characterisation of the film indicated that the resulting film was sturdy and flexible. In the cinnamaldehyde release test, no burst release was observed. The release was slow and gradual. Out of 8 test microorganisms, only 6 microorganisms were inhibited by the film with cinnamaldehyde during the cross streak test. The growth inhibition test signified that there were 4 Gram-positive bacteria with 100% growth inhibition. The application of the film showed a notable reduction of bacterial load in the cooked rice. Besides, it exhibited 5.0-log suppression of bacterial growth, which relative to control. The results indicated that the alginate film incorporated with cinnamaldehyde could be potentially used as an eco-friendly food packaging material.