Surface characterization on an antimicrobial film activated with lactocin 705

BLANCO MASSANI, MARIANA; EISENBERG PATRICIA; LLORET PAULINA; MOINA CARLOS; YBARRA, GABRIEL; VIGNOLO GRACIELA

Lima, Perú

Simposio; XI Simposio Latinoamericano. IX Congreso Iberoamericano de Polimeros (SLAP); 2008

Sociedad latinoamericana de polímeros

In food industry microbial contamination reduces the shelf-life and increases the risk of foodborne illness. In the last decade there has been a growing interest in the development of biopreservation strategies. Active materials can provide additional functions to food packaging with respect to the traditional passive ones, which only protect the packaged food against external deteriorative factors [1]. Many lactic acid bacteria (LAB) are used to preserve a variety of foods by producing antimicrobial metabolites including organic acids and bacteriocins. These ribosomally synthesized antimicrobial peptides are tipically cationic, hidrophobic and are active against closely related bacteria. The development of antimicrobial films by the inclusion of bacteriocins is well known [2,3,4]. Lactocin 705, a bacteriocin produced by Lactobacillus curvatus CRL705, of meat origin had been characterized in CERELA and was found to be active against Brochothrix thermosphacta, a meat contaminant. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) is a powerful technique that can provide direct spatial mapping of surface morphology with nanometer resolution, allowing investigations on surface topography [5]. The aim of this work was to study the surface of a linear low density polyethylene LLDPE activated film by using AFM and contact angle determination.