Physicochemical and bioactivity of cross-linked chitosan-PVA film for food packaging applications

This work aimed to develop a novel antimicrobial coating based on chitosan and PVA to evaluate its effect on minimally processed tomato by means of microbiological analyses. In this report an antimicrobial film was prepared by blending chitosan (CS) and poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) with glutaraldehyde as the cross-linker. The miscibility and morphology of the film were investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The thermal property of the chitosan-PVA film was examined by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). The microbiological screening has demonstrated the antimicrobial activity of the film against food pathogenic bacteria viz. Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, and Bacillus subtilis. The obtained results indicate the film may be a promising material for food packaging applications. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.