Nanomaterial loaded chitosan nanocomposite films for antimicrobial food packaging

Abstract Food loss due to spoilage, constitutes is a great economic concern for the food industry. Nanotechnology, being an advanced field comes into play in order to overcome this major global issue of food spoilage. With the help of nanotechnology, unique food packaging techniques can be designed, which can minimise the spoilage and increase the shelf life of food materials. In this study, we prepared and characterised zinc oxide and silver nanomaterials and then prepared chitosan nanocomposite films followed by their characterization. The antimicrobial activity of these films was also evaluated on S. aureus and E. coli by disc assay and cell growth curve analysis. The results showed dose dependent antimicrobial activity of nanocomposites films. It was concluded that the silver-chitosan nanocomposite were more efficient, for use in antimicrobial food packaging applications as compared to the ZnO-chitosan nanocomposite.