Carvacrol-Loaded Agar Foaming Bacterial Cellulose for Active Food Packaging Applications

Bacterial cellulose (BC) is a biodegradable nanoscale film produced by Komagataeibacter xylinus. It provides great mechanical properties, water content, and biocompatibility. Then, Agar/FBC in different concentrations of 0%, 0.5%, 1%, 1.5%, and 2% are produced by an in-situ modification to improve the absorption ability of FBC. In addition, Carvacrol essential oils, such as carvacrol, are combined by using ex-situ modification. This study aims to evaluate the agar addition in FBC with carvacrol in food packaging applications. The evaluation from Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) indicated that the additives were integrated into the foaming BC. In 1.5% agar/FBC, which exhibited significantly highest antimicrobial properties against E. coli (31.67±4.93 mm average inhibition zone) and S. aureus. (36.33±3.21 mm average inhibition zone). Moreover, in release measurement higher agar addition contributed to higher protein and carvacrol release out of the film however 1.5% agar/FBC showed a gradual release of carvacrol. Furthermore, from TVC, TVBN, and TBARS analysis, carvacrol with 1.5% agar/FBC show has the potential to be used as an active fish meat food packaging.