Scholarly record

THE IMPORTANCE OF STARCH SOURCE IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF EDIBLE MATERIALS FOR FOOD PACKAGING

Roxana Gheorghita Puscaselu, Gheorghe Gutt

Abstract

The packaging of a food product is an extremely important step in its path from development to the final consumer. The packaging has important functions: preservation and protection of packaged products, handling, storage and transport, as well as promotion. Most consumers choose a product based on its packaging, so we can say that it is the business card of a product. But because the consumer has refined his preferences and become more and more attentive to what he buys, the industry is looking for solutions to create new, biodegradable or compostable materials, that can bring benefits for the producer, trader and, especially, the consumer. The present study focused at developing new materials that can be used for packaging products and food supplements, being obtained entirely from starch from various sources, and plasticizer. In this sense, three types of starch were used; derived from corn, wheat and potatoes, 12 films with different concentrations of starch (50-100%) and glycerol (0-50%) were obtained. After development, the films were tested in order to establish some characteristics such as: microstructure, thickness, retraction ratio, color, transmittance, opacity, water activity index, moisture and water solubility. The results indicate that the final properties of the materials are influenced by the type of starch used. Thus, the films obtained from wheat starch and potatoes, plasticized with 50% glycerol are self-adhesive, with high solubility, and can be used for packaging products with low moisture content, and which are completely solubilized when consumed (food supplements, candies, raw sausages dried sliced etc.). The films obtained from potato starch with the addition of 10, respectively 25% plasticizer, are finer, with higher transmittance, but insoluble, which do not allow multiple bending, and with high fracturability, unlike films obtained from wheat starch, that were softer, finer, flexible and with higher solubility. The films obtained with corn starch are fragile, with pores in the structure, regardless of the amount of plasticizer used. All films obtained entirely from starch, without the addition of plasticizer are similar to conventional plastic, insoluble, transparent, but difficult to handle after drying. The present study highlighted the importance of the type of starch in the development of eco-friendly materials, which can be easily obtained and can be used successfully for food packaging and food supplements. According to the results obtained, wheat or potato starch can be used to obtain edible films with improved characteristics. For better properties, it can be mixed with other biopolymers, in order to improve the existing characteristics or acquire new ones.

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