FOOD PACKAGING TO CONTROL MICROBIAL ACTIVITY BY Tio2 AND ZnO

NANOPARTICLES
Nanotechnology is the study and application of extremely small things and can be
used across all the other field such as Chemistry, Biology,Physics, Material Science,
Food industry and Engineering.The commercial application of nanotechnology is
howevercurrently much more advanced in areas other than food. Many possible
food application are at a research stage in academia and industry, but at present
the full potential for such products has not been realised. Only a small number of
products have actually been commercialised mainly in countries outside the EU,the
US being leader in innovation in this field followed by Japan and China. A report
(Keiser 2007) made in 2007 suggested that apllication of food and food technology
in nanotechnology market value get increases from 2010 to 2013. As they
suggested it get increased and it will increases in following years.
With that report in food industry, we have been focussing on development of new
materials as well as new coating process on materials suitable for food packaging to
protect the food stuff from microbial attack. The packaging film with nanoparticle
coating shown great potential to control the growth of food borne pathogens .These
coated films on coming contact with food stuff , act upon food born microorganisms
and inhibit their growth .
With the development of nanotechnology the search for effective biocidal agents
has focussed on the development of nano sized particles of materials such as
silver,copper,zinc oxide and gold. Out of these silver and gold are expensive to be
used on industrial scale. Hence we focusses on metal oxide such as Tio2 and ZnO as
effective antibacterial agents for coating on high density polyethylene(HDPE) films,
because polyethylene based films shows excellent mechanical strength,
hydrophobic nature and moisture barrier which are some essential features for a
good packaging film.Synthesis of nanoparticles such as Tio2 and ZnO is done by Solgel method followed by characterisation.