Sustainable Indicators Based on Furfural-Derived Colorant-Doped Biobased Polyurethane to Improve Food Safety

Abstract

Ensuring food safety is a never-ending challenge. Developing time–temperature indicators (TTIs) having biobased temperature-responsive colorants (TCs) is an effective method for improving food safety. However, these colorants still suffer from limitations, including difficulty in scaling up for industrial production, imposing pressure on edible resources, and poor thermal stability, which seriously impedes their wide use in TTIs. Here, a new generation of biobased TCs based on furfural, featuring high yield, color tunability, reversible color change, and high thermal stability, are demonstrated. After doping them into a plant oil-based polyurethane, the resulting biobased film and corresponding TTI enable us to monitor the thermal history of food stored in the refrigerator precisely and improve food safety before consuming by visual color change. In addition to high biocontent, lightweight, and flexibility, the designed TTIs possess color tunability, durability, reusability, waterproofing ability, and cost efficiency, thus providing a significant step closer to their wide use and sustainability. This work represents an important complement to modern food packaging technology for improving food safety.

Principle, development and application of time–temperature indicators for packaging

“…For the moment, novel TTIs made of different biocompatible and biodegradable materials are being actively investigated. 114,115 Zhou et al 116 Also, hybrid materials have been proved to improve the reliability of accuracy for enzymatic TTIs by improving the storage stability. 119 Establishment of a database with activation energy values of various products will benefit the development of TTIs with high accuracy as well.…”

“…For the moment, novel TTIs made of different biocompatible and biodegradable materials are being actively investigated 114,115 . Zhou et al 116 proposed a sustainable TTI based on biobased furfural‐derived colourant and a plant oil‐based polyurethane. Puttipan and Khankaew 117 developed a biobased TTI with a natural colourant (betalains) extracted from the peel of red pitaya.…”

Role of Silicoaluminophosphate as a Corrosion Inhibiting Nanocontainer and Filler in Environmentally Benign Bio-Based Hybrid Coatings

“…Among organic coatings, polyurethanes (PU) are one of the most versatile polymers that are broadly used due to their aesthetic physical properties like anticorrosion, chemical resistance, abrasion resistance, flexibility, toughness, controllable hardness, and transparency, making them a potential candidate to work in a wide range of industrial and commercial applications including coatings, sealants, foams, and adhesives. − Since inception, PUs have mostly been prepared from fossil-fuel-based raw materials or polyols. However, owing to the depletion of the fossil feedstocks, there arises an alternative to use green and renewable resources in order to prepare the starting polyol. − Bio-renewable resources-based plant and vegetable oil serves the purpose for replacing the use of petroleum-based products in industry. , Among the various oils, oil of castor seeds (CO) is very inexpensive and is proposed to have an ample amount of usage in various industrial related fields like bio-fuels, medicines, cosmetics, paints, coatings, inks, and lubricants. − Additionally, the presence of hydroxyl functionality in the castor oil makes it a suitable bio-based polyol resin that can commonly be used as a precursor for the synthesis of polyurethanes …”

RFID-based sensing in smart packaging for food applications: A review

“…The color change or color diffusion of an indicator is hard to reverse, so they are difficult to reuse or provide quantitative information. But recent research shows that some temperature(S. Zhou, et al, 2022 ) and pH( Ezati, et al, 2020 ) responsive indicators can be reversible. Whereas, electronic sensors can give accurate data for different kinds of parameters observed in food products, for example, electronic nose and electronic tongue.…”