Whole utilization of fruits processing waste for the production of biopolymer films with UV-blocking properties for biodegradable packaging

Abstract

The growing world population and the changes in dietary behavior (promoted by the increasing concerns on food-health relationships) have caused an increasing fruit consumption. Since most fruits are highly perishable (especially when in tropical conditions), a high proportion of them is processed into products with an extended shelf life, generating a great amount of waste and by-products, which are usually discarded (generating environmental problems) or underutilized. At the other end of the food supply chain, the world needs environmentally friendly (i.e. renewable and biodegradable) packaging materials to replace conventional plastics, whose massive disposing results in high environmental impacts. In this context, the objective of this project is to convert bulk fruit processing by-products into biopolymeric films, in line with the biorefinery and circular bioeconomy concepts. Moreover, thanks to their composition, the films will probably have antioxidant and UV light absorbing capacities, for use in active packaging applications. By-products of five fruits (orange, banana, mango, pineapple, and guava), which are addressed in the thematic project in which this project is inserted (#2017/22401-8), will have their chemical compositions analyzed and be submitted to preliminary tests, in order to choose at least two of them. The pretreatments, formulations, and processing conditions will be defined, and the films will be characterized in terms of structure and properties (especially tensile and barrier properties), which will be compared to those of conventional plastics such as low density polyethylene and polypropylene. The film production will be initially tested at lab scale (bench casting) and then carried out at a pilot scale (continuous casting). We hope to contribute not only for valorization of food industry by-products, but also for prevention of losses - especially of oxidizable foods, by producing food packaging materials with antioxidant and UV barrier properties. (AU)