Nuria Burgos

Use of herbs, spices and their bioactive compounds in active food packaging

The interest and societal demand on the use of natural, biodegradable and renewable resources has increased in the last few years. In addition, food producers and consumers have improved their requirements for the quality of processed food, particularly in the field of increasing shelf-life while preserving organoleptic and nutritional properties. Active packaging technologies have greatly developed in the last decade by trying to satisfy the need for long-life processed food in addition to antioxidant/antimicrobial components in the packaging material. These components are intended to be released in a controlled way to food. These rising trends have been reflected in the field of food packaging by the use of chemicals extracted and obtained from plants in active packaging formulations. Herbs and spices have shown great potential to be used as renewable, biodegradable and valuable sources of chemicals, such as polyphenols, with high antioxidant/antimicrobial performance. This review aims to present the latest published work in this area.

Functional Properties of Plasticized Bio-Based Poly(Lactic Acid)_Poly(Hydroxybutyrate) (PLA_PHB) Films for Active Food Packaging

Fully bio-based and biodegradable active films based on poly(lactic acid) (PLA) blended with poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) (PHB) and incorporating lactic acid oligomers (OLA) as plasticizers and carvacrol as active agent were extruded and fully characterized in their functional properties for antimicrobial active packaging. PLA_PHB films showed good barrier to water vapor, while the resistance to oxygen diffusion decreased with the addition of OLA and carvacrol. Their overall migration in aqueous food simulant was determined and no significant changes were observed by the addition of carvacrol and OLA to the PLA_PHB formulations. However, the effect of both additives in fatty food simulant can be considered a positive feature for the potential protection of foodstuff with high fat content. Moreover, the antioxidant and antimicrobial activities of the proposed formulations increased by the presence of carvacrol, with enhanced activity against Staphylococcus aureus if compared to Escherichia coli at short and long incubation times. These results underlined the specific antimicrobial properties of these bio-films suggesting their applicability in active food packaging.

Valorization of Agricultural Wastes for the Production of Protein-Based Biopolymers

In this study we provide an overview of the latest developments on the extraction, production, modifi cation and applications of fruit residues and by-products in the formation of protein-based biopolymers, in particular for the formulation of edible fi lms. Our aim was mainly to demonstrate the highly transdisciplinary character of these topics by giving an overview of the main developments and research topics in the chemistry and engineering aspects of protein-based biopolymers. These innovative raw materials have been evaluated for the production of biomaterials to be used in some key sectors, such as food packaging.

Nanoencapsulation of flavor and aromas in food packaging

The development of new materials in active packaging systems is one of the main challenges in the food industry to be faced in the next few years. It is not easy to join in the same material different properties, such as high thermal and mechanical resistance, good barrier properties, adequate support to active components, and eventually high environmental sustainability. All these requirements make necessary the use of high-performance materials consisting of (bio)polymer matrices and active components to lead to synergies to increase shelf life of packaged food. Nanoencapsulation is one of the rising trends in active packaging since nanocapsules and other structures are increasing their use to contain active components, such as flavors or aromas, with controlled release to food. The main aim of this review is the presentation of the updated state-of-the-art in nanoencapsulated systems as support of flavors or aromas incorporated to (bio)polymers for food packaging.

Synthesis and Thermal Characterization of Polyurethanes Obtained from Cottonseed and Corn Oil-Based Polyols

The authors thank the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MAT2014-59242-C2-2-R) and CONACYT-Mexico (No.CB06825 and doctoral scholarship No.234299/212279) for their financial support.