Novel ex-situ functionalized bacterial cellulose-based packaging films with full hydrogen-bonded network for...

Petroleum-derived plastics have become a global public environmental crisis. Exploring sustainable, biosafety, and high-efficiency packaging films is a major challenge in food industry. Here, we construct a novel tea polyphenol (TP) and cinnamaldehyde (CA) co-modified bacterial cellulose-based films (CA/TP@BCF) with full hydrogen-bonded network by the ex-situ functionalization for food preservation. The experimental studies have disclosed that the synthesized CA/TP@BCF with exceptional mechanical behavior (TS: 62.4 MPa; EAB:47.1%; Toughness:12.01 MJm^-3; Young's modulus 127.6 MPa) and thermal stability (466 °C) can simultaneously achieve efficient antibacterial activities (about 100%), antioxidant activities (about 90%), bio-safety and biodegradability. The systematic preservation studies revealed that the CA/TP@BCF can provide efficient mitigation ability for pH, total viable count (TVC), thiobarbituric acid (TBA) and total volatile basic nitrogen (TVB-N) of fresh pork and weight loss rate of cherry tomato during storage, thereby extend the shelf life of pork and cherry tomato to 15 and 10 days, respectively. It is suggested that applying bacterial cellulose-based films with full hydrogen-bonded network will offer a new perspective for engineering high-performance sustainable and biosafety bioplastic in food fields.