The indiscriminate use of petroleum-based Packaging materials has resulted in a significant accumulation of plastic in landfills and the ocean. These materials have low degradability and are not effectively recycled. To address this problem and meet the demand for environmentally friendly products, the food industry is investing in the development of sustainable packaging alternatives that maintain nutritional quality and sensory properties such as color, taste, smell, and texture.

An innovative example of a sustainable packaging alternative is a Film composed of a compound derived from limonene, which is the main component of citrus fruit peel, and chitosan, a biopolymer extracted from the exoskeletons of crustaceans. This film was developed by a research group in São Paulo state, Brazil, consisting of scientists from the Department of Materials Engineering and Bioprocesses at the State University of Campinas’s School of Chemical Engineering (FEQ-UNICAMP) and the Packaging Technology Center at the Institute of Food Technology (ITAL) of the São Paulo State Department of Agriculture and Supply. The results of their research are detailed in an article published in Food Packaging and Shelf Life.

According to Roniérik Pioli Vieira, the last author of the article and a professor at FEQ-UNICAMP, the choice to focus on limonene was influenced by Brazil’s status as one of the largest producers of oranges in the world, with São Paulo being the leading orange-producing state. Limonene has previously been used in food packaging films due to its antioxidant and antimicrobial properties. However, its efficacy has been hindered by volatility and instability during the manufacturing process. To overcome this issue, the researchers utilized a derivative of limonene called poly(limonene), which is less volatile and more stable.

Chitosan was chosen as the film matrix because of its natural origin and well-known antioxidant and antimicrobial properties. The researchers hypothesized that combining limonene and poly(limonene) with chitosan would yield a film with enhanced bioactive properties. In the laboratory, films with different proportions of limonene and poly(limonene) were compared using polymerization techniques. The resulting film exhibited superior antioxidant activity, ultraviolet radiation blocking capabilities, and resistance to high temperatures compared to films with only limonene. The researchers remain focused on optimizing the production process and scaling it up for commercial packaging applications.

Although the films are not yet available for commercial use due to the limited production scale of chitosan-based plastic and the optimization of the poly(limonene) production process, the research group sees potential in the multifunctionality of poly(limonene) in various fields.

 

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