EFFECT OF ORANGE PEEL ESSENTIAL OIL ON THE PROPERTIES OF CHITOSAN: GELATIN CASTED FILMS PREPARED FOR ACTIVE PACKAGING

Food packaging is a passive barrier that protects food against environmental factors such as ultraviolet light, oxygen, water vapor, pressure, heat, chemical, and microbiological contaminants. In a changing and developing world, consumers now want to reach healthier, fresher, and more diverse foods. In response to consumer demands and expectations, the food sector has focused on developing active and intelligent packaging. The purpose of active packaging is to protect the properties of the food by interacting with the coating material and prolonging the shelf life. In this context, it is aimed to prepare active package films by integrating bioactive agents into films prepared based on biodegradable polymers. It is an important point that is determined how the characteristics of the films such as morphology, molecular structure, surface property, and antimicrobial activity, will shift depending on the type and quantity of bioactive agent addition. Based on this, packaging films loaded with different concentrations of orange peel essential oil (OEO) (25, 50 and 100% of total polymer weight) were produced on the basis of chitosan and gelatin natural polymers. The changes that occur in the active films as a result of the increasing amounts of oil were revealed by determining the molecular structure, surface property, morphological characteristics, solubility quality, and antibacterial activity. The solubility of the films, which is an effective parameter in the evaluation of the environmental impact of the films that will be released as waste after use, varied between 20% and 25% at the end of 48 hours. The 100OEO@CH:GEL film showed the highest antibacterial properties against Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus.