Apart from being non-toxic and biocompatible, these naturally derived biopolymer-based films can transport antioxidants and therefore, do not create any inherent contamination to food including the leaching of additives like phthalates 2. These novel films are non-toxic, biodegradable, sustainable, and biocompatible 1. Under this circumstance, the development of natural eco-friendly packaging materials has increased tremendously in recent years. However, the extensive use and dumping of these non-degradable substances inevitably exacerbate the rising crisis of pollution in the environment. The benefits of such conventional substances are clear due to their ease of production, low cost, and excellent barrier properties. Synthetic polymeric packaging materials derived from petroleum have long been used in the food sector for ensuring the quality and safety of a wide range of foods. Our results suggest that CH-based films enriched with TEO and additives such as ZnO/CaCl 2/NC/PEG are an ecological, environmental friendly, and effective alternative approach to retain shelf life of collard greens during refrigerated storage. Moreover, CH-TEO based films incorporated with ZnO/PEG/NC/CaCl 2 were significantly effective in reducing physiological weight loss, retained total soluble solids, titratable acidity, and preserved chlorophyll contents as well as showed lesser a* values, suppressed microbial growth, and preserving appearance/sensory quality of collard greens for 24 days than LDPE and other biodegradable films. The results indicated that the incorporation of ZnO/PEG/NC/CaCl 2 in CH-based films significantly decreased water vapor transmission rate, increased tensile strength, and were water soluble and biodegradable in nature. In the present study, chitosan (CH) based biodegradable films were developed enriched with thyme essential oil (TEO) incorporated with different additives including zinc oxide (ZnO), polyethylene glycol (PEG), nano clay (NC), and calcium chloride (CaCl 2) and characterize the postharvest quality of ‘collard greens’ during refrigerated storage.

Spss 11.5 software free download