Background
Microbial activity is a primary cause of deterioration in many foods and is often responsible for reduced quality and safety. Food-borne illnesses associated with E. coli O157:H7, S. aureus, S. enteritidis and L. monocytogenes are a major public health concern throughout the world. A number of
Conclusions
These findings suggested that CLC incorporation can improve mechanical, physico-chemical, and antimicrobial properties of the resulting films, thus allowing the films to become more applicable in active food packaging.
Results
The effect of the catechin-lysozyme combination addition (CLC: 0, 0.125, 0.25, and 0.5%, w/v) on fish gelatin film properties was monitored. At the level of 0.5% addition, the CLC showed the greatest elongation at break (EAB) at 143.17% with 0.039 mm thickness, and the lowest water vapor permeability (WVP) at 6.5 x 10-8 g·mm·h-1·cm-2·Pa-1, whereas the control showed high tensile strength (TS) and the highest WVP. Regarding color attributes, the gelatin film without CLC addition gave the highest lightness (L* 91.95) but lowest in redness (a*-1.29) and yellowness (b* 2.25) values. The light transmission of the film did not significantly decrease and nor did film transparency (p>0.05) with increased CLC. Incorporating CLC could not affect the film microstructure. The solubility of the gelatin based film incorporated with CLC was not affected, especially at a high level of addition (p>0.05). Inhibitory activity of the fish gelatin film against E.coli, S.aureus, L. innocua and S. cerevisiae was concentration dependent. Conclusions: These findings suggested that CLC incorporation can improve mechanical, physico-chemical, and antimicrobial properties of the resulting films, thus allowing the films to become more applicable in active food packaging.