Plasticizing effect of Apis mellifera honey on whey protein isolate films

Abstract

The aims of this study were to analyze the plasticizing effect of Apis mellifera honey on the mechanical, physicochemical and optical properties of whey protein isolate (WPI) films and to compare the results collected with the plasticizing effect of glycerol on WPI-films. Response surface was applied to optimize the amounts of WPI and glycerol in order to obtain films with higher tensile strength (TS), moderate elongation, and lower water vapor permeability so that they could be used as reference films. Honey was added at different concentrations (60%, 80%, and 100%) of g honey/100 g WPI, as a plasticizer to the WPI-films. In comparison to glycerolplasticized films, an increase in the percentage of honey produced a reduction of 20 ± 10 to 48 ± 0.5% of TS, a 66 ± 0.5% lower in Young's modulus (WPI-films with 100% honey), and an increase of 186 ± 11% in elongation at break in the WPI-films with 100% honey. Honey-plasticized WPI-films were from 29 ± 11 to 43 ± 3% less permeable to water vapor than glycerol-plasticized WPI films. The mechanical characteristics of the 80% honey formulation did not differ significantly from those of the reference film (p > 0.05). Findings from this study indicate that honey has great potential as a plasticizer in WPI-films.

Enhancing ionic conductivity and flexibility in solid polymer electrolytes with rainforest honey as a green plasticizer

“…The enhancement of the conductivity can be attributed to the specific ratio of glucose to fructose in honey, which reduces crystallization 17 . The incorporation of honey as a plasticizer improves the film flexibility and enhances ions' mobility within the material 58 . Furthermore, with the addition of 10 wt.% NH 4 SCN (SN10), the conductivity of Ch‐Dx‐honey further increases to 9.07 × 10 −10 S cm −1 while conductivity of Ch‐Dx is 3.54 × 10 −10 S cm −1 .…”

“…17 The incorporation of honey as a plasticizer improves the film flexibility and enhances ions' mobility within the material. 58 Furthermore, with the addition of 10 wt.% NH 4 SCN (SN10), the conductivity of Ch-Dx-honey further increases to 9.07 Â 10 À10 S cm À1 while conductivity of Ch-Dx is 3.54 Â 10 À10 S cm À1 . The addition of honey also able to increase the amorphous region by creating more spaces for ion conduction and increases the segmental motion of the polymer, thus increasing the conductivity.…”

Effects of the geometry of reinforcement on physical properties of sodium caseinate/TiO2 nanocomposite films for applications in food packaging

“…Values were similar to the ones reported in the literature for other systems, such as whey protein isolate‐based films plasticized with Apis mellifera honey or sodium alginate‐based films. [ 16,40 ] But the addition of TiO 2 significantly modified opacity. Since the films' thickness only showed small differences, changes in opacity were mainly due to changes in the films' absorbance.…”

“…[13] Among them, protein solution-based films were prepared with milk proteins such as NaCas or whey protein isolate, concentrate, or nanofibrils. [9,11,[14][15][16] In most cases, spherical nanoparticles of TiO 2 P25 were used. Since interactions between matrix and reinforcement have a great effect on structure and mechanical behavior, the geometry of reinforcement should have great effects on physical properties.…”

Protein‐based active films: Raw materials, functions, and food applications

“…The addition of plasticizers to proteins can lead to changes in their three-dimensional structure, where plasticizers enter between protein molecular chains and join proteins through physical interactions and chemical reactions, resulting in increased ductility, flexibility, and elasticity and decreased mechanical properties, cohesion, and stiffness (Ananey-Obiri et al, 2018). Currently, plasticizers, such as those made from soy protein isolate (Zhu et al, 2023), corn protein (Baloyi et al, 2023), milk protein (Stefano et al, 2023), and whey protein isolate (Mariana et al, 2022), have been used in protein-based packaging films, and good results have been obtained. Water is the most used best-performing plasticizer in the preparation of protein films.…”