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Growing concerns over synthetic plastic pollution have spurred interest in biodegradable food packaging. Starch edible films are an eco-friendly alternative that can enhance the shelf life of fruits and vegetables thanks to their excellent oxygen barrier properties. Nonetheless, Starch edible films have several disadvantages, such as low water resistance and poor mechanical properties. Modifying starch through reactive extrusion, particularly succinylation, offers a solution. Therefore, this research aims to prepare edible films using starch modified by succinylation with different safe-food-use degrees of substitution (DS, 0–0.05) through the extrusion process and Glycerol Content (GC, 15–30%). The succinylated starch edible films’ (SSEF) functional properties and their effectiveness as a coating for mango preservation were evaluated. Results show that as the DS increased, SSEF had lower barrier properties and higher mechanical properties. Additionally, mangoes coated with SSEF exhibited better postharvest quality (weight loss, ΔE, firmness, pH, TA, and °Brix) than control fruit.

There is great interest in developing edible films (EFs) with functional properties made from renewable resources to solve environmental problems associated with plastic waste and improve food preservation and safety. Corn starch is the main raw material employed for producing EFs due to its biodegradability, and availability. Nonetheless, the hydrogen bonding interactions of the native starch structure are strong, limiting its use in the development of bioplastics. In addition, starch-based materials are hydrophilic and lack mechanical integrity. A measure to overcome these disadvantages is the starch native structure modification by a reactive extrusion, where acetylation is one of the most applied chemical modifications. The functionality of acetylated modified corn starch is determined by the degree of substitution (DS). Glycerol is a widely used plasticizer in the food area and is essential in forming starch-based EFs, improving their flexibility and elongation. Hence, this research aimed to develop acetylated modified corn starch edible films (AcEFs) with a DS (0–0.2) and Glycerol Content (GC) (15–30%) to improve its functional properties. The acetylated modified corn starch was obtained by reactive extrusion. The casting technique was used to obtain AcEFs; these were characterized and optimized, evaluating the deformation, puncture resistance, carbon dioxide permeability, water vapor permeability, and water solubility. The data was analyzed using the surface response methodology, and the optimization was carried out using the numerical method. According to the optimization study, the AcEFs with the best mechanical and barrier properties were obtained with 0.16 DS and 18.30% GC.

Public health, production and preservation of food, development of environmentally friendly (cosmeto-)textiles and plastics, synthesis processes using green technology, and improvement of water quality, among other domains, can be controlled with the help of chitosan. It has been demonstrated that this biopolymer exhibits advantageous properties, such as biocompatibility, biodegradability, antimicrobial effect, mucoadhesive properties, film-forming capacity, elicitor of plant defenses, coagulant-flocculant ability, synergistic effect and adjuvant along with other substances and materials. In part, its versatility is attributed to the presence of ionizable and reactive primary amino groups that provide strong chemical interactions with small inorganic and organic substances, macromolecules, ions, and cell membranes/walls. Hence, chitosan has been used either to create new materials or to modify the properties of conventional materials applied on an industrial scale. Considering the relevance of strategic topics around the world, this review integrates recent studies and key background information constructed by different researchers designing chitosan-based materials with potential applications in the aforementioned concerns.

Starch is an attractive raw material as ingredient for edible film manufacture because of its low cost, abundant availability, renewability, and biodegradability. Nevertheless, starch based films exhibit several disadvantages such as brittleness and poor mechanical and barrier properties, which restrict its application for food packaging. The use of the extrusion technology as a pretreatment of the casting technique to change the starch structure in order to obtain edible films, may constitute an alternative to generate coatings with good functional properties and maintain longer the postharvest quality and shelf life of fruits. For this reason, the objective of this study was to optimize the conditions of an extrusion process to obtain a formulation of modified starch to elaborate edible films with good functional properties using the casting technique and assess the effect during the storage when applied on a model fruit. The best conditions of the extrusion process and concentration of plasticizers were obtained using response surface methodology. From optimization study, it was found that appropriate conditions to obtain starch edible films with the best mechanical and barrier properties were an extrusion temperature of 100 °C and a screw speed of 120 rpm, while the glycerol content was 16.73%. Also, once applied in fruit, the loss of quality attributes was diminished.

High-fiber breakfast cereals (HFBC) are highly produced, and adding squash is proposed to enhance their nutritional and nutraceutical composition. This study aimed to optimize the extrusion process from the physical, physicochemical, and antioxidant properties of HFBC, evaluating the effect of barrel temperature (BT, 90–120 °C), screw rotational speed (SRS, 110–210 rpm), and squash content (SC, 4–20%). Bulk density and breaking stress increased with high SC and low BT and SRS. The water solubility index decreased with low SC across all BT and SRS ranges. Total color difference decreased at low SC and high SRS. Total phenolic compounds and antioxidant activity (inhibition of low-density lipoproteins oxidation) increased at low BT and high SC. The optimal extrusion conditions were BT 90 °C, SRS 209.99 rpm, and SC 5.35%, and the HFBC obtained in these conditions presented adequate dietary fiber levels and sensory properties. The HFBC exhibited acceptable physical, physicochemical, and antioxidant properties, presenting adequate levels of phenolic compounds and fiber provided mainly by SC.

Starch chemical modification can be used in order to obtain modified starches (MS) with low affinity to water. Acetylated and succinylated starches whose applications as food ingredient depend upon their degree of substitution (DS) may be produced by esterifying starch through the extrusion process (EP). The Food and Drug Administration recommends a DS of 0.2 and 0.05 for acetylated and succinylated starches, respectively. The objective of this study was to find mathematical models to obtain the optimum values of DS, Water absorption Index (WAI) and Water Solubility Index (WSI) for MS with safe-for-food-use DS and low affinity to water, modifying the starches by acetylation and succinylation using EP. The process variables were Barrel Temperature (BT, 80–160 °C), Screw Speed (SS, 100–200 rpm) and Reactant Concentration (RC, Acetylation, 0–13% and Succinylation, 0–3%). The best conditions to obtain acetylated starches were RC = 7.88%, BT = 80 °C and SS = 100 rpm, presenting values of DS = 0.2, WAI = 7.67 g/g and WSI = 6.15%. On the other hand, the optimum conditions to obtain succinylated starches were RC = 1.12%, BT = 80 °C and SS = 126 rpm, obtaining values of DS = 0.05, WAI = 3.40 g/g and WSI = 7.92%. These results showed that it is possible to obtain acetylated and succinylated MS with safe-for-food-use levels of DS and with low affinity to water, using EP.