| Abstrakt: |
Chitin is one of Earth's most abundant biopolymers, but its solubility limits its uses and applications. The deacetylation of chitin leads to chitosan. Chitin and chitosan are the most abundant biopolymers with diverse sources like insects, fungi, exoskeletons of crustaceans, and mollusks, the major resource for obtaining these polymers are the shells of crustaceans. Chitosan is proved to be useful for the synthesis and development of bioactive material with its incompatible nature and functional properties, such as biodegradability, biocompatibility, nontoxicity, film-forming, and gelling property, encapsulation potential, chelating, antioxidant, anticoagulant, and antimicrobial characteristics. Therefore, in the food industry, its derivatives have significant potential because of food products contamination. Since the last decade, the interest and demand have been increased for the development of bio-based active films, which are distinguished by different antifungal activities to decrease the use of chemical preservatives and to increase the storage and preservation of food. Chitosan-based films have garnered serious attention in food preservation and packaging technology. This is mainly due to the high antimicrobial activity against pathogenic and spoilage micro-organisms, including fungi, and both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. This review is focused on an overview of the major applications and advances in the development of chitosan and its derivatives, especially, their novel applications in the food industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
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