EDIBLE GELATIN FILMS WITH IMPROVED WATER REPELLENCE AND MECHANICAL PROPERTIES

PEÑA, CRISTINA; RATEGI, ALOÑA; RUSECKAITE, ROXANA A.; MONDRAGON, IÑAKI

Paris

Congreso; First International Meeting on Material Bioproduct Interactions; 2010

Gelatin films (G) and gelatin-chestnut (GC) tannin films were obtained at different compositions by casting at room conditions. After the analysis of physico-chemical and mechanical properties of obtained films, systems which contained 5 and 10 wt% of tannin showed most suitable properties: lower solubility and higher rigidity than gelatin films, among others. These systems were selected in order to increase their deformability by addition of a plasticizer looking for their possible applications. Several contents of glycerol were chosen for modification of both gelatin and gelatin-tannin films. Mechanical properties obtained by tensile tests showed that glycerol presence results in materials with twice the deformation of neat gelatin. Thus, the incorporation of chestnut tannin and glycerol reduces the limitations of gelatin for use in packaging due to the reduction of the solubility until 20 wt% and the increase the deformability until 6 %.