Development of eco-friendly food packaging bio-film from cassava starch plasticized with coconut oil

The use of food packaging materials is on the rise because of continued growth of food industries. Food packaging materials' environmental effects are now a major concern for people all over the world, particularly for the public, governments, businesses, and producers. To reduce environmental pollution, encourage the recycling of packaging materials, and achieve sustainability in food packaging, numerous studies have focused on developing novel packaging solutions that utilize renewable resources that are biodegradable, compostable, or eco-friendly. This study explored the development of food packaging film of two different thicknesses from cassava starch, glycerol and coconut oil as a plasticizer and evaluating their suitability for food packaging. Cassava starch from Kenya was characterized and used as the main raw material for making the bio-based films at a rate of 80% with glycerol (10%) and coconut oil (10%) as the processing additives. The transparency and water solubility of the films were significantly different and transparency ranged from 0.646-0.668% while the water solubility was 32.61-39.085% for the 150 µm and 200 µm films, respectively. The moisture content increased with thickness, with the highest (200 µm thick) having 10.16%. There was no significant difference on the Young’s modulus, tear strength, tensile strength at rapture and elongation at break, but the thicker films had higher water vapour permeability rate of 5.27× 10-9 g m-1 s-1 Pa-1 as compared to the 150 μm films which had 5.05× 10-9 g m-1 s-1 Pa-1. The film samples were proven to be biodegradable by the average cumulative weight loss of 89.59% for the 150 µm sample and 89.82% for the 200 µm sample, following 120 days of soil burial test. The biofilms obtained had sustainable and promising functional characteristics suitable for packaging of dry solid foods.