Visible light - driven antibacterial packaging based on whey protein isolate amyloid fibrils for food preservation

Imbalances in moisture and oxygen in food packaging's microenvironment easily cause pathogenic bacteria proliferation, accelerating spoilage. Utilizing visible light from the storage environments as an excitation source to achieve environmentally adaptive antibacterial action represents an effective strategy. In this study, quantum dots-modified metal-organic framework composites (QDs@UIO-66) were synthesized and a visible light-responsive antimicrobial packaging (QUAFF) was constructed using whey protein isolate amyloid fibers as the substrate. QDs@UIO-66 forms a Z-scheme heterojunction and has a higher reactive oxygen species (ROS) production capacity. The antibacterial rate of QUAFF against E. coli reached 99.87% under visible light irradiation. Exogenous ROS disrupt bacterial cell membranes, cause intracellular protein/nucleic acid leakage, with ¹O₂ playing a core role. Concurrently, QUAFF exhibited excellent mechanical properties, laying the foundation for its practical application. In the preservation verification of postharvest tomatoes, QUAFF delayed the deterioration of tomato quality and extended their shelf life to 20 days.