Title : Development and study of the behavior of a new material based on PVA/Chitosan: Use as food film
Abstract:
The preservation of a foodstuff consists in maintaining its hygienic, nutritional and organoleptic qualities for as long as possible by acting on the various deterioration mechanisms to slow down or eliminate their effects. There are compatibility problems between plastic packaging and food. Indeed, interactions between plastic and food are inevitable. They sometimes lead to quality defects both on the organoleptic and toxicological levels. The best known of these problems is the migration of residual monomers or adjuvants that can be released by the packaging and contaminate the food. The aim of this work is to develop biodegradable films from chitosan and Polyvinyl Alcohol (PVA) as basic biopolymers for food packaging. In this work, two steps were carried out: first, the preparation of chitosan by deacetylation of chitin extracted from squid feathers after demineralization and deproteinization. The obtained product was characterized by Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). Then, the elaboration of membranes based on pure chitosan and pure PVA and mixing of chitosan with Polyvinyl Alcohol (PVA) at different percentages. The results obtained in this study show that the incorporation of PVA can improve the water resistance of the chitosan film indicated by the decrease in the kinetics of water adsorption and the increase in the value of the contact angle. The analysis by IR-TF spectroscopy showed that there are no specific interactions between chitosan and PVA in the mixture. However, the films of the chitosan/PVA mixture can be made up to 30% PVA thanks to the emulsifying quality of chitosan. The effectiveness of incorporated PVA in decreasing the water sensitivity and improving the water vapor barrier of chitosan was confirmed.
Keywords: Beta Chitosan, Food Films, Biopolymer, PVA, Food Safety
