Carboxymethyl Cellulose /Aloe Vera Gel Edible Films For Food Preservation

Carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) - based edible coatings have been widely investigated and used for fruits and vegetables preservation. In this study, the CMC edible films incorporated with Aloe vera gel (AVG) powder at different proportions (5/0, 5/1, 4/1, 3/1, and 3/2) were prepared and characterized to evaluate their applicability in food preservation. FT-IR spectra of the prepared films indicated that no major chemical differences in comparison to individual material. Mechanical strength test showed that as the Aloe vera gel proportion increased, the tensile strength and puncture resistance of the CMC/AVG films decreased, while the elongation at break significantly increased. The addition of Aloe vera gel not only lowered the water vapor permeability and but also increased the water solubility of CMC based films. Especially, all the tested CMC/AVG films were impermeable to oil. These results suggested that CMC/AVG edible films are applicable to postharvest preservation of some fruits such as banana, custard apple, and dragon fruit. In addition, CMC/ AVG films are also suitable for packaging high fat-containing food products, such as the manufacturing of oil packets of instant noodles due to their high oil resistance and high dissolvability in hot water.