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  • Sustainable starch-based ed...
    Coimbra, Patrícia; Alarico, Susana; Empadinhas, Nuno; Braga, Mara E.M.; Gaspar, Marisa C.

    Innovative food science & emerging technologies, August 2023, 2023-08-00, Volume: 88
    Journal Article

    Edible films are promising carriers for probiotics and can be composed by agrifood residues, which are usually rich in polymers and bioactive compounds. In this work, starch-based films were enriched with three types of agrifood residues (quince, potato and orange peels) and the incorporation of the probiotic Lactobacillus rhamnosus was studied, as well as the addition of inulin as a protective prebiotic. The resulting films were characterized in terms of mechanical properties, physicochemical properties, lactobacilli viability and microbiological properties. The mechanical properties of the films generally decreased with the introduction of L. rhamnosus, although this was highly dependent on the film composition. All films exhibited water vapor permeabilities in the typical range of starch-based films and were not greatly affected by the inclusion of probiotics. The loss of probiotic viability during films production was strongly related to the pH of the film-forming solutions. Films with agrifood residues had a slower loss of probiotic viability during storage, when compared to plain starch films, which may be explained by the presence of antioxidant compounds. Inulin was expected to improve viability, but this was not observed. Microbiological analysis showed that agrifood residues powders contained natural contaminant bacteria that were partially eliminated during film formation. Moreover, none of the target foodborne pathogens were detected in the analyzed samples. Overall, the results suggest that edible films containing agrifood residues can be a promising material for the delivery of probiotics and/or as primary packaging for some food products. •L. rhamnosus incorporated into starch-based edible films with agrifood residues.•Valorization of potato, orange, and quince peels agrifood residues.•Probiotic viability highly dependent of the pH of the film-forming solutions.•Addition of agrifood components slows down loss of viability during storage.•Reduction of bacterial contamination from agrifood residues during film preparation.