Abstract

A few fruits have short post-harvest life due to high metabolic activity, relatively high water content vulnerability towards microbes and loss of weight during their storage. Carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC)-Guar gum-silver nanocomposite films (CG-(AgNC)-N-0) are developed to address these issues. The silver nanoparticles were generated in the CMC-Guar gum matrix through a reduction by Mentha leaves extract. All the films were characterized by UV-vis spectroscopy, FT-IR, TGA, XRD, SEM, TEM, and zeta potential measurements. The antimicrobial activity of CG and CG-(AgNC)-N-0 was measured by determining their zone inhibition values with ten food pathogenic microbes. The shelf life of CG-(AgNC)-N-0 films was tested with the model fruit, strawberries, and compared with other packing films. The results are encouraging in terms of freshness, shelf-life and weight loss.