Master’s Thesis Proposal Questions and Answers

Master Program in Food Safety

Taipei Medical University

Agar Addition in Foaming Bacterial Cellulose with Carvacrol for

Food Packaging Application

Student: Anita Chandra Kusuma

ID: MA47110001

Advisor: Professor Shin-Ping Lin, Ph.D.

Date: September 2022

1. What is the novelty
The novelty of this thesis is to create a BC using 2 different types of modification which are in-situ
modification for pore size control using agar and ex-situ modification using carvacrol as an anti-microbial
and anti-oxidation reagent.

2. How does the agar control the pore size?

Because of its nanoparticle size, the agar will incorporate into the BC fibers during the foaming. After
incubation for 5 days, the agar will be removed using the high-temperature treatment and create pores
inside the BC fibers. In agar particle production, we will get 2 different agar nanoparticle size by using
filtration and this agar size will contribute in BC pore size.

3. How does carvacrol disintegrate the membrane of bacteria?

Carvacrol, with its hydrophobic structure, can interact with the phospholipid membrane of cells or low-
density lipoprotein and reduce lipid peroxidation and nitric oxide production, which leads to oxidative
destruction of cellular membranes.

4. How the carvacrol binds in BC?

The carvacrol will be incorporated between the BC fibers, so it does not need any interaction with the BC.
No interaction between BC also makes the carvacrol easily incorporate and release into the food.

5. How to do the release activity analysis?

After the BC foam modification with agar finished, we will do agar removement and then freeze dried
the BC. Freeze dried BC then immersed into carvacrol solution. After immersed into the water, BC will
be immersed into water. Then we measure the water solution every 2 hours in HPLC to determine the
carvacrol concentration.

6. Salmon quality analysis? What are the quality measurements?

Visual measurement (color and texture), antimicrobial properties,

7. Why you use xanthan, agar, cremodan, and carvacrol?

Xanthan: common stabilizer in food industry and cheap
Agar: common, easy to be removed, easy method, and cheap
Cremodan: formulated based on triglycerides, which inherently are biocompatible, common and cheap
Carvacrol: not only has high antioxidant, but also high antimicrobial, antibacterial, and antifungal, that is
suitable in seafood packaging. Classified as SAFE to be consumed.

For the Proposal literature review, I will arrange as mentioned below

1. Food spoilage (background, causes, and effects)
2. Food packaging (active, intelligent)
3. Bacterial cellulose (characteristic and application)
4. Biosynthesis of bacterial cellulose
5. Production of bacterial cellulose
6. Foaming system
7. Types of BC modification
8. In-situ modification with agar nanoparticle addition
9. Ex-situ modification with carvacrol

For the others (Hypothesis, aims, and methods), I will arrange as the suggestions mentioned during the
proposal defense.