Vol. 10, Special Issue 11 (2021)

Author(s):
Monisha Chandran, S Anandakumar, Sivanandam Vignesh and Loganathan Manickam

Abstract:
The black soldier fly with high nutritional value reared from food waste were used to develop bio-packaging film for food commodities. The plastic is a major concern in today’s population. Thus to overcome this issue bio-packaging film was developed using insect flour. The black soldier fly prepupae have prominent amount of protein (42-44%) and chitin (9-11%) compound which can be used to develop bio-packaging films. The development of bio-packaging film from novel sources such as insects provides an opportunity to explore the under-utilized source. The insect flour bio-packaging was evaluated its suitability in food application by testing its tensile strength, antioxidant activity, opacity, color, water activity, and GSM. The film developed with 4% (w/v) black soldier fly prepupae flour in 1% (w/v) chitosan solution. The combination of flour and chitosan in 30:70 showed good mechanical properties. Decreasing the chitosan concentration significantly reduces the antioxidant property of the film The addition of glycerol exhibited glossy transparent appearance in control film whereas in other film composition were appeared to be in slight brownish due to the pigment present in flour component. The study concluded that exploring the nutritional rich black soldier fly prepupae as a sustainable resource of bio-packaging film in food sector with less frugal for futuristic mass commercialization.