Biodegradable carboxymethyl cellulose based material for sustainable/active food packaging application

This work goal is to develop a valuable biodegradable material for sustainable packaging. The utilization of agriculture wastes to produce biodegradable packaging films based on carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) will reduce its price. CMC was prepared from sugar cane bagasse, and used to prepare composite films with mandarin and cantaloupe peels extracts of different ratios. The effects of these extracts on the mechanical and antimicrobial properties of the prepared films were evaluated. Thus, the films incorporated with 10% concentration of mandarin and cantaloupe peels extract exhibited excellent antimicrobial properties against gram positive, gram negative bacteria and pathogenic yeast than the other lower concentrated films. The physiochemical properties of each developed biodegradable films were characterized using Fourier Transform Infra-Red (FTIR) spectroscopy, X-Ray diffraction analysis (XRD), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and antimicrobial. The reflected work is a novel approach, and which is vital in the conversion of organic waste to value-added product development.