Dry Bacterial Cellulose and Carboxymethyl Cellulose formulations with interfacial-active performance: processing conditions and redispersion

Abstract

Dry or powdered formulations of food additives facilitate transportation, storage, preservation and handling. In this work, dry formulations of bacterial cellulose and carboxymethyl cellulose (BC:CMC), easily redispersible and preserving the functionality of the never-dried dispersions are reported. Different processing parameters and their effect on the materials properties were evaluated, namely: (i) wet-grinding of BC (Hand-blender, Microcut Head Impeller, High-pressure Homogenizer), (ii) drying of BC:CMC mixtures (fast drying at & 130°C and slow drying at 80°C) and subsequent (iii) comminution to different particle sizes. The dispersibility of the obtained BC:CMC powders was evaluated, and their functionality after redispersion was assessed by measuring the dynamic viscosity, the effect in oil/water interfacial tension (liquid-liquid system) and the stabilization of cocoa in milk (solid-liquid system). The size of BC fibre bundles was of paramount relevance to its stabilizing ability in multiphasic systems. A more extensive wetgrinding of the BC fibres was accompanied by a loss in the BC:CMC functionality, related to the increasingly smaller size of the BC bundles. Indeed, as the Dv (50) of the wet BC bundles was reduced from 1228 to 55 lm, the BC:CMC viscosity profile dropped and the effect on interfacial tension decreased. This effect was observed both on the never-dried and dry BC:CMC formulations. On the other hand, the drying method did not play a major effect in the materials' properties. In a benchmarking study, the BC:CMC formulations, at a low concentration (0.15%), had better stabilizing ability of the cocoa particles than several commercial cellulose products.

Development and Characterization of Yeast-Incorporated Antimicrobial Cellulose Biofilms for Edible Food Packaging Application

“…In contrast, the SEM micrograph of the BC/CMC composite film showed a high packing density of cellulose fibrils and the presence of many cracks on its rough and porous surface ( Figure 2 B). These observations are in accordance with a previous report [ 61 ]. This morphology of the BC/CMC composite film could be attributed to the large molecular size of the non-homogeneously dissolved cellulose fibrils.…”

Bacterial Cellulose-Carboxymethyl Cellulose (BC:CMC) dry formulation as stabilizer and texturizing agent for surfactant-free cosmetic formulations

“…Even in low concentrations they are able to stabilize different heterogeneous systems for long periods of time, such as liquid-in-liquid emulsions (stability for over 90 days against coalescence and creaming, at 0.5 %) and solid-in-liquid dispersions (stability for over 4 days against sedimentation, at 0.15 %). Moreover, BC:CMC was able to outperform some commercially available MCCs in these systems [27,28].…”

“…For BC:CMC and Avicel PC-591, at both concentrations, emulsions remained fully stable as no creaming nor phase separation were observed. It has been previously shown that dry BC:CMC has the ability to reduce the oil/water interfacial tension [27,28], a property associated to emulsifying agents. Therefore, emulsions were also prepared without surfactants (NSF), to evaluate the effect of the cellulose products alone in the stabilization of the oil phase.…”

Bacterial Cellulose/Tomato Puree Edible Films as Moisture Barrier Structures in Multicomponent Foods

“…However, the redispersion of powdered BC in water is impaired by hornification (the irreversible aggregation of cellulose chains upon drying) [ 14 ]. The problem is usually dealt with either by chemically modifying BC by introducing electrically charged groups (e.g., carboxyl groups inserted by oxidation) [ 14 ], or by combining BC to an electrically charged polymer such as carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC), thus promoting electrostatic repulsion and water dispersibility [ 15 , 16 ].…”