THE PRODUCTION OF EDIBLE AND ANTIMICROBIAL ACTIVE PACKAGING MATERIAL WITH THYME OIL AND DETERMINATION OF PRINTABILITY PROPERTIES

Abstract: Increasing demands of consumers in food packaging enabled the development of active packaging practices. Antimicrobial and antifungal coatings or films are an active packaging application. In such packaging materials, natural or synthetic antimicrobial material is added to the film or coating to help the packaging protect food. The use of biofilms produced from biopolymers in food packaging is more suitable than polymers with many damages such as PET, PE. Film production of many biopolymers such as cellulose derivatives, chitosan, PVA, starch PLA can be realized. Thymus essential oils and extracts with antimicrobial and antioxidant properties are widely used in pharmaceutical, cosmetic, herbal tea, flavoring agents and perfume industry, also for flavorings and preservation of several food. In this study, it is aimed to produce antibacterial printable edible which is used in active packaging, using starch and thyme essential oil. For this purpose, starch edible films containing different rates (0.1, 2.5, 5, 10%) of thyme oil were produced by spin coating method. The transparency of prepared five different films were determined by UV spectroscopy. Antimicrobial properties of the obtained films were determined against S. aureus and E. coli. Edible films were printed with screen printing and printability parameters such as color, gloss, contact angle and surface tension were examined. Consequently, starch films loaded with thyme oil were successfully produced. It is concluded that edible films are colorless, transparent and have good printability. It was determined that the amount of thyme essential oil increased in the edible had a strong inhibitory feature against S. aureus and E. coli. With these features; produced films are considered to be suitable for active packaging applications.