Bioactive Pad Design With Anisotropic Wettability: Synergistic Liquid Management and Antimicrobial Action for Chilled Mutton Preservation

ABSTRACT In this study, a composite antimicrobial pad with a triple‐layer structure was fabricated using poly‐ l ‐lactic acid (PLA), poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) and chitosan (CS) as substrates, with cinnamaldehyde (CIN) serving as the antibacterial substance. The structure was composed of PLA/5% β‐CD‐CIN as the top hydrophobic layer, PVA/CS (8/2) as the middle adhesion layer, and filter paper as the bottom absorbent layer. The result of directional liquid absorption performance confirmed that water could penetrate from the top hydrophobic side of the pad within 6 s. The antimicrobial performance showed that the pad could inhibit all tested spoilage bacteria (with an inhibition rate of > 95.0%). The TVC of chilled mutton in the blank group on Day 10 was 7.13 log CFU/g, which was above the threshold value. The application of the pad in front of the chilled mutton showed that the TVC was above the threshold (7.36 log CFU/g) at Day 16. Therefore, the composite antimicrobial pad exhibited a great potential for the preservation of chilled mutton.