Guwahati: According to the World Health Organization (WHO), an estimated 600 million, or nearly one in ten people, cases of illness were caused by contaminated food supplies in 2023, and 420,000 people die each year as a result of contamination from food, which led to the loss of 33 million healthy life years.
Food packaging retains product quality, reduces product damage, aids in transportation, allows safe storage, and acts as another type of product communication. Packaging plays a significant role in maintaining or monitoring food quality.
Scientists from the North East Institute of Science and Technology, Jorhat, have developed a biodegradable packaging bag for meat and fish with freshness indicator.
The work was led by Dr Swapnali Hazarika, Senior Principal Scientist at NEIST, and assisted by Krishnakamal Hazarika, Dr Achyut Konwar.
“We have developed a biodegradable packaging system and directly converted it into a bag by using heat sealing. The cellulose nanofiber used in the process was obtained from grass, a waste product which contains approximately 30-40% cellulose. The cellulose acetate and nanofiber composite film is converted into smart packaging materials by the addition of natural dyes obtained from vegetables,” Swapnali told EastMojo.
Finally, the Cellulose acetate composite film was converted to an intelligent packaging material by coating its surface with natural anthocyanin.
She said due to the colour-changing property of Anthocyanin present in dyes, it changes the colour of the packaging bag and indicates the spoilage of fish or meat inside the bag. In another sense, the bag will indicate the freshness of meat and fish inside the packaging bag. “The developed bag is biodegradable in nature and there is no threat to the environment,” she added.
“Various factors, such as food safety, consumer expectations, nutritional information, uniformity, and other country-specific factors, impact the overall quality of food. Such a type of intelligent packaging can communicate with the food material inside it and the consumer without any direct contact” she said.
Cellulose acetate is a semisynthetic polymer and is important for various applications because of the increasing issue of plastic pollution. “Due to the thermoplastic nature of cellulose acetate, this bag can be sealed by applying heat and food packaging biodegradable bag can be prepared on a large scale,” she added.
Cellulose acetate is one of the important candidates in this regard, having stability in aqueous medium along with inherent biodegradability due to being of natural origin. Cellulose acetate, being one of the oldest semisynthetic polymers, is now becoming relevant for various applications because of the increasing issue of plastic pollution.
In addition, cellulose acetate has very good film-forming ability and, being thermoplastic in nature, such films can be sealed by applying heat.
“Food packaging on a large scale requires quick packing of the food item inside the packaging bag as well as availability of the packaging material,” she said.
The thermoplastic nature of the polymeric materials providing heat sealability enables large production of packaging bags with quick packing facility. “Therefore, it is of utmost importance to concentrate on the development of smart packaging materials having thermoplastic nature with the additional benefit of biodegradability,” she said.
The research work has been published in Carbohydrate Polymers, a research journal published by Elsevier.
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