Antimicrobial and Food Coating Applications of Iron Oxide Composite Embedded with Pectin and Xanthan Gum

Customer delight and the need to reduce environmental pollution have led to the pursuit of biodegradable and active packaging materials, owing to the growing demand for premium food products. By adding functional agents to extend shelf life while maintaining food quality, active food packaging has a lot of promise. A simple approach was used in this study to formulate an iron oxide composite (PFX) based on pectin and xanthan gum for food coating. FT-IR and Raman spectroscopy validated the composite’s formation, and SEM analysis described the surface morphology of the prepared materials. Meanwhile, the prepared composite exhibited good results toward various studies such as water vapor transmission rate range from 2.6 to 10.05 g/m2 h over 8 days, remarkable antibacterial activity against four food-related bacterial strains, a swelling ratio of 266% over 12 h, and a hemolysis rate of 1.92% at 100 μg/mL in hemocompatibility testing. Tensile tests also showed a maximum force of 44 N and a stress of 22 MPa. Foremost, shelf life testing with samples of apples and guavas showed that this PFX composite had promising potential for employment in food packaging applications.