Cetrimide Crosslinked Chitosan/Guar Gum/Gum Ghatti Active Biobased Films for Food Packaging Applications

Chitosan/Guar Gum/Gum Ghatti (CS/GG/GGh) active biobased films were fabricated by employing cetrimide as crosslinking and antimicrobial agent in presence of polyethylene glycol as plasticizer through solvent casting technique. The effect of various concentrations (0.05 0.1. 0.15 and 0.2%) of cetrimide on the physico-chemical and functional properties of plasticized CS/GG/GGh active biobased films were studied. FTIR analysis confirmed the interactions of cetrimide with polymer chains. The incorporation of cetrimide significantly improved the mechanical, thermal and barrier properties. Crosslinking of cetrimide significantly reduced the moisture adsorption, water solubility, hydrophilic surface and also improved the poor water vapor barrier properties usually associated to polysaccharide-based films. Active biobased films were extremely sensitive against Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli and Candida albicans. Overall migration of constituents of films was well below the overall migration limit of 10 mg/dm(2). The developed biobased films are environmental friendly with new features that can potentially serve as a food packaging materials.

Automated summary

Chitosan/Guar Gum/Gum Ghatti (CS/GG/GGh) active biobased films were successfully fabricated using cetrimide as a crosslinking and antimicrobial agent, resulting in improved performance and bactericidal effect. The films exhibited sensitivity to various bacterial strains.