Flash Poster New active biodegradable materials for use in agriculture and food industries - ICS84 The 84th Annual Meeting of the Israel Chemical Society

Yevgenia Shebis ^1,2 Vijay Bhooshan Kumar ³ Aharon Gedanken ³ Elena Poverenov ¹

¹Department of Food Quality and Safety, Agricultural Research Organization, The Volcani Center, Rishon LeZion, Israel
²Faculty of Agriculture, Biochemistry and Food Sciences, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Rehovot, Israel
³Department of Chemistry, Kanbar Laboratory for Nanomaterials, and Institute for Nanotechnology and Advanced Materials, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel

The current study explores new, biodegradable and eco-friendly packaging solutions for the prevention of spoilage, reduction of bacteria, yeast and molds on fruits, particularly fresh cut fruits. Carboxymethylcellulose (CMC) and chitosan, two well-known polysaccharides were chosen as the base films for the study due to their attributes.Vanillin, curcumin and curcumin-vanillin mixture were formed in situ from an aqueous/ethanol solution and deposited on the surface of CMC/chitosan films using a high-intensity ultrasonic method. Morphological, microbiological, mechanical and spectroscopical properties of the films were tested. While the modified chitosan films with vanillin showed significant antimicrobial effect, chitosan films that were deposited with a curcumin-vanillin mixture revealed a strong anti-yeast & anti fungi effect.CMC films containing curcumin-vanillin mixture showed high antibacterial properties and a total inhibition of yeast/mold proliferation during 12 days arising the probability of a synergistic affect between the three substances. Overall both film types help preserve the fresh cut fruit for minimum of 5 days not exceeding the acceptability threshold of 5 log CFU g^-1 for bacteria and 7⁹ log CFU g^-1 for yeast and molds. Furthermore, the addition of curcumin and curcumin-vanillin to the films, improved their physio mechanical properties making them firmer and stiffer. Polysaccharide based packaging may allow a natural, non-toxic and biodegradable solution preserving the environment and human health.