An active peptide-based packaging system to improve the freshness and safety of food products

Among the natural polysaccharides used in the food packaging industry, bacterial nanocellulose (BNC) has been emerging as a natural biomaterial of considerable significance in a number of industrial sectors because of its remarkable physico-chemical and biological characteristics. Specifically, the BNC produced from food industry waste represents an innovation in this sector, offering numerous advantages ranging from edibility, biodegradability, lack of toxicity, up to a high mechanical resistance. In addition, BNC has been recognized by the FDA as a safe nanostructured biomaterial (GRAS) in the food sector. In the recent years, antimicrobial peptides have been recognized as potent, safety and sustainable compounds to confer antibacterial and antifungal activity to the polymeric materials commonly used for food packaging.

The BNC for bio-based packaging will be produced in a static culture with a medium supplemented with food wastes, thus representing an interesting alternative for industries. 

• Different shapes and sizes of containers will be filled with the selected bacterial culture media and conditions.
• The BNC produced by these static cultures comprises a hydrogel pellicle formed at the air-culture medium interface. The BNC films will be washed with distilled water and treated by different protocols before dried. 
• The films will be pre-activated or not by cold plasma and functionalized with a panel of antimicrobial peptides, optimizing different coupling reactions to obtain high immobilization yield and stability.

The best prototype will be tested for its safety and anti-mycotic potential and to assess the increased shelf-life of different food matrices.

Selection of the best sustainable active packaging based on bacterial nanocellulose functionalized with antimicrobial peptides to increase the safety and shelf-life of different food matrices.