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RESEARCH PRODUCT

Study of the chemical, physical and functional properties of edible starch-based films

subject

description

The amount of waste increased annually, mainly from plastic industry. Plastic materials were more produced during the only last ten years than during the last millennium. A potential solution of the ecological and economic problems can be biodegradable or edible films and coatings. The goal of this thesis was to study edible films and coatings based on starch. Fifteen types of film-forming solutions were made: 3 types of starch, starch + different amounts of plasticizer, starch + proteins, starch + oil. To better understanding the interaction between film components, physical, chemical and functional tests were done. Finnaly, validation on real foods (plums) as coatings and films helped to improved edible barrier films for fruit and vegetable preservation.Preliminary physico-chemical studies of corn, potato and wheat starch film properties allowed choosing the wheat starch-based films further experiments. Then, a 50% amount of plasticizer related to dry biopolymer weight was selected aiming to obtain films being not too rigid, that did not break and without blooming. To prove the barrier moisture efficacy, rapeseed oil was added as multilayers films. Microstructure observations displayed that oil was dispersed as droplets instead of layer, thus emulsion-based films were obtained instead of multilayer starch-oil-starch films. Various ratios of starch/protein were assessed to improve functional properties of films. The more the protein content was, the better the barrier efficiency against water vapour, oxygen or aroma were. Indeed, higher protein content films were more dense and homogeneous. From these data obtained on films, and the better understanding how composition and structure affect film performances, several recipes were tested as coatings or films for wrapping fresh plums. Thermographic analysis was used to study the plums behavior during storage, and starch coating was efficient to delay fruit degradation.