Etxabide Alaitz, Arregi Maite, Cabezudo Sara, Guerrero Pedro, de la Caba Koro
BIOMAT Research Group, Escuela de Ingeniería de Gipuzkoa, University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), Plaza de Europa 1, 20018 Donostia-San Sebastián, Spain.
BCMaterials, Basque Center for Materials, Applications and Nanostructures, UPV/EHU Science Park, 48940 Leioa, Spain.
Polymers (Basel). 2023 Jan 11;15(2):387. doi: 10.3390/polym15020387.
The management of food waste and by-products has become a challenge for the agri-food sector and an example are whey by-products produced in dairy industries. Seeking other whey valorisation alternatives and applications, whey protein films for food packaging applications were developed in this study. Films containing different amounts (0, 5, 10, and 15 wt%) of ascorbic acid were manufactured via compression-moulding and their physicochemical, thermal, barrier, optical, and mechanical properties were analysed and related to the film structure. Additionally, the environmental assessment of the films was carried out to analyse the impact of film manufacture. Regarding physicochemical properties, both FTIR and water uptake analyses showed the presence of non-covalent interactions, such as hydrogen bonding, between whey protein and ascorbic acid as band shifts at the 1500-1700 cm region as well as a water absorption decrease from 380% down to 240% were observed. The addition of ascorbic acid notably improved the UV-Vis light absorbance capacity of whey protein films up to 500 nm, a relevant enhancement for protecting foods susceptible to UV-Vis light-induced lipid oxidation. In relation to the environmental assessment, it was concluded that scaling up film manufacture could lead to a reduction in the environmental impacts, mainly electricity consumption.
食品废弃物和副产品的管理已成为农业食品行业面临的一项挑战，乳制品行业产生的乳清副产品就是一个例子。为寻求其他乳清增值替代方案和应用，本研究开发了用于食品包装的乳清蛋白薄膜。通过压缩成型制造了含有不同量（0、5、10和15 wt%）抗坏血酸的薄膜，并对其物理化学、热学、阻隔、光学和机械性能进行了分析，并将其与薄膜结构相关联。此外，还对薄膜进行了环境评估，以分析薄膜制造的影响。关于物理化学性质，傅里叶变换红外光谱（FTIR）和吸水率分析均表明，乳清蛋白与抗坏血酸之间存在非共价相互作用，如氢键，在1500 - 1700 cm区域出现谱带位移，同时观察到吸水率从380%降至240%。抗坏血酸的添加显著提高了乳清蛋白薄膜在500 nm以下的紫外 - 可见（UV - Vis）光吸收能力，这对于保护易受UV - Vis光诱导脂质氧化的食品具有重要意义。关于环境评估，得出的结论是扩大薄膜制造规模可能会导致环境影响的降低，主要是电力消耗的减少。
