Fabrication of a dual-response intelligent antibacterial nanofiber and its application in beef preservation

Abstract Cinnamaldehyde (CA) possesses high antibacterial activity, but it's unstable and volatile in food system. To overcome its drawbacks, a kind of dual-response controlled-release nanofiber was fabricated by electrospinning to embed CA@hyaluronic acid/carboxymethyl chitosan nanoparticles (CA@HA/CMCS-NPs) into silk fibroin nanofibers (CA@HA/CMCS-NPs SF nanofibers). When the concentration of CA@HA/CMCS-NPs was 5 mg/mL, CA@HA/CMCS-NPs SF nanofibers have better mechanical properties, the tensile strength was 3.21 MPa, and the elongation at break was 47.51%. The β-glucuronidase (β-G) and serine protease specifically secreted by Escherichia coli (E. coli) O157:H7 could deconstruct the shell of SF and HA via hydrolysis. It results in the dual-response controlled-release of CA from CA@HA/CMCS-NPs SF nanofibers. After 5 days of treatment with CA@HA/CMCS-NPs SF nanofibers at 4 °C and 25 °C, the amount of E. coli O157:H7 in beef was reduced by 99.98% and 99.89%, respectively. Besides, the CA@HA/CMCS-NPs SF nanofibers have no impact on the sensory quality of beef.