Development of amla, curcumin, and agarose-based edible films for sustainable food packaging

In this study, the solution-casting technique was used to fabricate edible biofilms, with Phyllanthus emblica (amla) waste serving as the biopolymer, and curcumin, agarose, gelatin, and glycerol as functional additives to enhance the biofilm's physicochemical properties. The prepared biofilms with and without curcumin were characterized by FTIR, XRD, FE-SEM, and TGA. Furthermore, the tensile strength, which was 3.8 MPa in the absence of curcumin and 4.6 MPa in its presence, was found to enhance durability, making them more suitable for use as food packaging materials. The optimized biofilms was found to degrade completely in burial soil, which indicates potential use in solving environmental pollution problems in a green manner, replacing non-biodegradable packaging materials with biodegradable ones. When used in packaging cherry tomatoes, the biofilms was found to increase their shelf life, which was found to be higher than those using plastic packaging materials and those kept under open conditions. The biofilm exhibited weak antimicrobial activity against both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria, suggesting its potential for low-load packaging applications.