Reducing Aluminum Toxicity in Food Packaging Using Bio- Polymer

Abstract

In the era of modern food industry, food packaging has gained a lot of interest that helps in protecting food from environmental factors and in maintaining the integrity of food. Aluminum, being widely used material in food packaging has been used as containers, foils and pouches in packaging of hot foods, snacks and beverages. Many studies have been conducted which show that there is an increase in Aluminum content in brains of patients with Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases. It has been suspected that leaching of Aluminum content from the food packaging is one of the main reasons. Hence in this work, a biopolymer barrier has been used in reduction of Aluminum leaching into food. Chitosan, being a biopolymer, is non-toxic and biodegradable which has film forming and antimicrobial properties can be used as a barrier in order to prevent the leaching of Aluminum into the food. Hot rice (approx. 60°C) was used as sample for the experiment. Hot rice was wrapped in Aluminum foil and chitosan coated Aluminum foil for 90 minutes. Aluminum content was detected using inductively coupled plasma- optical emission spectrometer (ICP-OES) for only rice; rice in Aluminum foil and rice in chitosan coated Aluminum foil and found to be 2.81ppm, 3.29ppm and 2.87ppm respectively. The result obtained implied that chitosan acts as a barrier thereby inferring that chitosan coated Aluminum foil can be used to reduce leaching of Aluminum to the food and hence minimise the ill effects of Aluminum intake to the body.