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Abstract

The concept of smart food packaging based on sensor and indicator have been attracting more interests to the industrial community because of the concerns of food quality and safety. A sensor with food packaging has a scope to enable real time monitoring of microbial contamination in products. The objectives of this study are to develop poly-lactic acid (PLA) coating bio-nanocomposite film as a sensor for smart food packaging and employ it to evaluate meat freshness in packaging. The bio-nanocomposite film was constructed by film casting method, using an ultrasonic suspension of nanocellulose impregnated with chitosan and methyl red dye synthesis, namely PLA/NCM film. The color modulation of the PLA/NCM films was processed via colorimetric device, and the results revealed that PLA/NCM film detected the meat decay when film‘s color changed from red to yellow as meat decay increased over 10 days. The nanostructure and microstructure of the developed sensor was inspected by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and results revealed that PLA successfully coated upon the NCM film. The outcome of this research is that PLA/NCM film could be an effective tool to offer highly sensitive sensing tools for smart food packaging with good capacity and could monitor meat decay sensitively in the commercial food packages.