title: Flexible chitosan-nano ZnO antimicrobial pouches as a new material for extending the shelf life of raw meat.
abstract: As a breakthrough to open up the industrial use of novel environmentally benign packaging material, we propose the first report on portable chitosan-ZnO nano-composite pouches that will serve as elite entrants in smart packaging. A facile, one pot procedure was adopted for the preparation of the C-ZnC films. In order to tune the property of C-ZnC films, four different composite films were prepared by varying the concentration of ZnO. The prepared films were found to be much superior when compared to bare chitosan and other conventional films. Two bacterial strains that commonly contaminate in packed meat were selected as target microbes to elucidate the antimicrobial activity of the prepared C-ZnO film. Detailed investigations revealed that the antimicrobial efficiency is linearly related to the amount of ZnO nano-particles in the composite. The C-2 films exhibited excellent antimicrobial activity and was fabricated into packaging pouches for raw meat. The prepared pouches showed significant action against the microbes in raw meat owing to its complete inhibition of microbial growth on the sixth day of storage at 4°C. The C-2 pouches stand as a top-notch material when compared to polyethylene bag in extending the shelf life of raw meat.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University of Calicut, Malappuram, Kerala 673635, India.
authors.forename: P Mujeeb
authors.initials: PM
authors.lastname: Rahman
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University of Calicut, Malappuram, Kerala 673635, India.
authors.forename: V M Abdul
authors.initials: VM
authors.lastname: Mujeeb
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University of Calicut, Malappuram, Kerala 673635, India. Electronic address: kmuralika@gmail.com.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Muraleedharan
mesh_terms: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000737:chemistry / Q000494:pharmacology*; D048271:Chitosan / Q000737:chemistry*; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000187:drug effects; D018857:Food Packaging; D008460:Meat / Q000382:microbiology*; D055595:Mechanical Phenomena; D008826:Microbial Sensitivity Tests; D049329:Nanostructures / Q000737:chemistry*; D012995:Solubility; D013211:Staphylococcus aureus / Q000187:drug effects; D013696:Temperature; D013997:Time Factors; D015034:Zinc Oxide / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents; D048271:Chitosan; D015034:Zinc Oxide
keywords: Anti microbial packaging systems; Chitosan/nano ZnO composite films; One pot synthesize