Edible films made from pear juice and pregelatinized cassava starch

QUINTERO PIMIENTO CARMEN; LÓPEZ CORDOBA ALEX; GOYANES SILVIA; FORESTI LAURA

Bogotá

Congreso; 10th Shelf Life International Meeting Bogotá, Colombia X SLIM 2022; 2022

Instituto de Ciencia y Tecnología de Alimentos (ICTA) y la Facultad de Ciencias Agrarias de la Universidad Nacional de Colombia (Bogotá), en colaboración con el Italian Scientific Group of Food Packaging (GSICA) and Universidad de La Salle.

Due to the widely recognized negative environmental impact of conventional plastics,in recent years there has been an increasing interest in replacing them with renewableand/or biodegradable polymers. In this context, the use of fruits and vegetables in the form of purees, extracts, juices or pomaces appears as a very attractive alternative for the production of biobased and biodegradable edible films to be used in food packaging. These films are featured with distinguishing sensory and nutritional properties. The film-forming formulation may be either exclusively comprised by the plant material or otherwise include other edible biopolymers acting as binding agents to improve film cohesiveness, consistency, mechanical strength and barrier properties, as well as chosen edible plasticizers. In this context, the current contribution was focused on the production of edible films made from pear juice and pregelatinized cassava starch, with potential application as food packaging material. The effect of fruit maturity indexes was particularly assayed. Films were prepared from mixtures of William´s pear juice (71.2% w/v), cassava starch (0% and 3% w/v), glycerol (0.8% w/v) and water. The materials were characterized in terms of mechanical properties, color, transparency, solubility and swelling. The addition of pregelatinized cassava starch significantly improved the quality of the films, highly reducing their sticking property. Depending on the fruit maturity index juices without starch addition formed pellicles that could not even be detached from the cast surface. All films properties were correlated with the fruit maturity index and the addition of pregelatinized starch. In particular, the assay of mechanical properties in tension mode indicated that the maturity index of pears positively affected the stiffness and strength of the films (increments of 10 and 3 times were measured, respectively), whereas ductility was reduced (by 50%). Overall, the use of pear juice and pregelatinized cassava starch seems a promising alternative for the production of biobased edible films.