DEVELOPMENT AND CHARACTERIZATION STUDY OF EDIBLE FILM FOR FOOD APPLICATIONS FROM MUSA ACUMINATA “RED DACCA”

Abstract

Fruit processing industry is labeled as high residue producing industry. There are several by-
products including peel, seed, stalk and roots which may contain a large number of bioactive
components. Banana is a low profile food for developing countries. The peel of banana is
discarded as waste which is about 1/3rd of fruit weight. There are more than 50 varieties of
banana were cultivated in India and 20 varieties were commonly grown across India. The banana
peel, an underutilized by-product, was used to prepare flour and phytochemical analysis was
performed. The flour is expected to be responsive to high antioxidant activity and nutritional
value. We have developed an edible packaging film from the flour of the Banana Peel, which can
be used for numerous food applications. The film was prepared with different ratio of flour and
glycerol and it was characterized in terms of thermal, mechanical, microbiological and moisture
barriers., film forming ability and sensory properties. The most proper film formulation was
chosen based on the response of Preliminary formulation. In further process the selected film was
evaluated on basis of water resistances, color & light barrier, tensile properties, FT-IR Spectra
for edible film and anti-microbial activity. The banana peel floor is a promising material to
develop edible film.