Cellulosic films reinforced by chitosan-citric complex for meat preservation: Influence of nonenzymatic browning

The methods to obtain cellulose-chitosan composite films exhibiting excellent water-resisting and antibacterial abilities have been widely explored. Cellulose-chitosan-citric films (C-Chx-F) were successfully obtained by a facile coating of chitosan-citric complex on the surface of cellulose. The occurrence of nonenzymatic browning at 80 °C improved the thermal stability, water-resistance, mechanical property and oxygen-barrier ability of C-Chx-F membranes. C-Ch3-F hydrogel showed excellent breaking stress of 6.03 ± 0.25 MPa, and elastic module of 27.09 ± 1.21 MPa, probably assigned to nonenzymatic browning. Under different test temperatures, the nonenzymatic browning and the content of chitosan-citric complex will significantly improve the oxygen barrier property of membranes (P < 0.05), and C-Ch3-F membrane represented the value of oxygen permeation below the detection level. Excellent antibacterial capability of C-Chx-F hydrogels demonstrated that polycationic chitosan-citric complex immobilized in films still retained excellent antibacterial ability. The excellent decontamination in meat preservation endowed C-Chx-F films with potential application in food packaging.