Huixia Zhu, Shiru Jia, Hongjiang Yang, Weihua Tang, Yuanyuan Jia, Zhilei Tan
Abstract
The feasibility of a novel bacteriostatic sausage casing made of bacterial cellulose (BC) embedded with ɛ-polylysine (ɛ-PL) was evaluated. The ɛ-PL/BC composite was prepared by immersing BC tubes in ɛ-PL solution and its characteristics were analyzed with Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and atomic force microscopy (AFM) techniques, respectively. The results suggested that ɛ-PL molecules were incorporated into the cellulose fiber networks and the ɛ-PL/BC composite might have a novel unique structure. No significant loss of antimicrobial activity was observed even after autoclaving at 121°C for 30 min and the oxygen permeability was far below than that of polyethylene (PE) and polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) membrane. Its tensile strength was 51.8 MPa. The ɛ-PL/BC composite exhibits bacteriostatic and/or bacteriocidal activities against a broad spectrum of Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria; as a result, an extended shelf life than controls was observed for sausage packaged with the ɛ-PL/BC composite.
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