부산대학교 도서관

Biopolymer films and coatings are generally designed using biological materials such as proteins, polysaccharides, lipids and their derivatives. The use of plasticizers is also required to improve the mechanical properties (tensile strength and elongation) of the films. For application of films to food systems, it is important for the developed films to possess favorable mechanical and permeability characteristics. Therefore, knowledge of optimum conditions where the water vapor permeability (WVP) is minimized while the mechanical properties are enhanced would be significant depending on the application of the edible films. In this study, the effects of glycerol, as a plasticizer, and methylcellulose (MC) ratios on WVP and mechanical properties of the whey protein films were investigated. Optimum properties of edible films were obtained by applying the complex method optimization algorithm to this multiobjective function problem, and glycerol to total polymer ratio (MC and whey protein concentrate [WPC]) of 0.356 and 0.45 was found for the films with MC : WPC ratios of 0.3 and 0.8, respectively. With respect to the results of this study, it might be concluded that optimum conditions for different edible film-forming agents can be determined via the use of a good experimental design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]