Edible Films for Food Safety

The new issue of Agricultural Research, the magazine published by USDA’s Agricultural Research Service (USDA-ARS), maintains a timely common thread of food safety, discussing such topics as bacteriophages and steps toward improving the safety of meat.

One article on edible films as a possible food-safety measure for fresh produce provides some particularly interesting food for thought. USDA-ARS researchers have been busy analyzing hundreds of botanical extracts to determine their possible food-safety applications. Some promising findings include edible films made from spinach purée, as well as Golden Delicious or Fuji apple purées. The purées are then enhanced with carvacrol, an essential oil in oregano, to gain their food-safety edge. In the case of a bagged spinach, the ultra-thin film included in the bag would not only protect the product from pathogens—partially via its vapor—it would provide a subtle flavor accent. Recent research has shown that the carvacrol-enhanced films can kill E. coli O157:H7 in laboratory tests.

Other botanical compounds that have shown food-safety promise include citral from lemongrass and cinnamaldehyde from cinnamon.

Related research concerning the effectiveness of apple and carvacrol films has been recently published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.