Research Projects

Food quality after production is essential as its basic nutritional value. To guarantee quality, quantity, and safety of products after harvest, the study develops polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) based hybrid filler nanocomposites for food packaging and can be considered as a smart post-harvest technique. Herein the study devices cellulose nanofibers (CNFs) from water lettuce and curcumin from turmeric spent as bio-fillers for PVA reinforcement. Due to its physico-chemical properties, stability to temperature variation, and more, PVA is sourced for making films and coatings for food supplements. When blended with natural polymers, they are expected to show excellent chemical stability. Water lettuce is an invasive species in aquatic life that will act as a sustainable precursor for nanocellulose. The strength, stiffness, degradability, renewability, affordability, and other features of nanocellulose serve as a better natural counterpart for conventional ones in composites. The hydrophilic nature of both PVA and CNFs makes a better interfacial adhesion between the matrix and filler. Subsequently, CNFs will impart better mechanical, thermal, and barrier properties for the processed films. Turmeric is a medicinal herb with anti-oxidant and anti-bacterial qualities built-in. The major leftover from turmeric processing operations was turmeric spent which is rich in the pigment curcumin. Curcumin is a phytochemical which exhibits pH dependent solubility. As pH rises, the structural transformation of curcumin causes a color change from yellow to reddish-brown. This sparks utilizing curcumin as a pH indicator to determine food freshness. Thus beneficial use of curcumin will pass on pH sensing, antioxidant, and anti-bacterial properties to the films. Moisture loss, oxidation of components and bacterial infections are the major post-harvest degradations. Oxidation of organic compounds of harvested stuff along with microbial assault is problematic during its storage. As curcumin exhibits anti-oxidant and anti-bacterial properties, it can be easily mitigated and the food damage on prolonged storage can be determined using pH sensing ability of the films. The provision of perishable items without spoiling is critical for long-term storage. Thus the cumulative effect of CNFs and curcumin in PVA delineated in the study is a complete solution for this. UV, FTIR, XRD, SEM, TEM, AFM, TG, EDS, BET surface area, and other techniques will be used to characterize the bio-fillers. The mechanical, thermal, morphological, barrier, contact angle, antioxidant, anti-bacterial properties, and cytotoxicity of the processed films will all be assessed. The feasibility of using developed films as active packaging material will be conducted using fresh fruits and vegetables.