Preparation And Characterization Of Fish Gelatin Antimicrobial Film

With the improvement of people's concerns to food safety and environmental consciousness, the development of edible food packaging, made from natural materials, has been the hotspot of recent research. In this work, an antimicrobial food packaging film has been designed and prepared. Fish gelatin has been chosen as raw material, blended with chitosan and D-limonene, to develop a gelatin-based edible food packaging film with high performance. Specific research contents are as follows:Firstly, a method to improve the antioxidant property of gelatin by adding hydrolysed gelatin is designed and the effect of hydrolysed gelatin on gelatin is investigated. Results show that the addition of hydrolysed gelatin largely increases the antioxidant property of gelatin. Although the existence of hydrolysed gelatin decreases the gel strength and viscosity of gelatin to some extent, the preparation of edible food packaging films is not influenced by controlling the concentration of hydrolysed gelatin.Secondly, the extraction method of fish skin gelatin has been researched. The effect of reaction temperature, pH value, extraction time and extraction temperature on fish gelatin molecular weight, with calcium hydroxide as catalyzer is investigated. The optimized extraction conditions and process have been determined.Thirdly, fish gelatin-based edible antimicrobial films have been prepared successfully, with D-limonene, extracted from orange peel, as antimicrobial agent. With the addition of D-limonene, the antimicrobial activity of films improved and the optimized concentration of D-limonene is 4.00%. It is fascinating that the addition of D-limonene also improved the water-barrier property and elongation at break. In a word, the D-limonene is a multifunctional additive in the system.Fourthly, to improve the tensile strength, D-limonene-chitosan-fish gelatin edible antimicrobial films have been designed and prepared. The results show that, the antimicrobial and water-barrier properties have both been enhanced largely. This research provides a basis of the industrialization offish gelatin-based edible antimicrobial films.