Testing Methods for Characterisation of Polysaccharide-Based Films

The packaging of food is an essential process in industry to protect food product from deterioration. The consumer behaviour towards packaging of foods is changing continuously. Petroleum-derived packaging materials have harmful impact on human health and environment, hence leading to the development of packaging materials. In current era, there is a huge demand for the biodegradable films ascribing to their high flexibility, transparency, thermal stability, excellent mechanical properties, biodegradability and barrier properties that result in enhancement of their functionality other than mere packaging. Owing to their close-knit matrix, polysaccharide-based films possess excellent mechanical strength but lack in barrier properties. The various polysaccharides used for developing these edible films are starch, cellulose, pectin, chitosan, pectin, gums, etc. Edible films produced from these polysaccharides should have particular properties to act as good packaging material. These films should act as good barriers to moisture, gasses and aroma compounds. These should have good mechanical strength so that it could resist the conditions during storage and transportation. The testing of packaging material generally comprises of the determination of mechanical strength and permeability as well as physical properties. But it is too important to study the stability of material for chemicals, principally when used for food applications.