ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Sustain. Food Syst.

Sec. Sustainable Food Processing

Volume 9 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fsufs.2025.1610769

Sustainable Biodegradable Tapioca Starch Films Enhanced with Basil Oil, Carboxymethyl Cellulose, and Citric Acid for Functional Food Packaging Applications

Provisionally accepted
  • 1Avinashilingam Institute for Home Science and Higher Education for Women, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India
  • 2Tunku Abdul Rahman University, Kampar, Perak, Malaysia
  • 3International Balkan University, Skopje, Skopje, North Macedonia
  • 4University St. Clement of Ohrid, Bitola, North Macedonia
  • 5Taif University, Ta'if, Saudi Arabia
  • 6College of Science, Taif University, Taif, Saudi Arabia
  • 7King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Makkah, Saudi Arabia
  • 8King Faisal University, Al-Ahsa, Eastern Province, Saudi Arabia
  • 9Umm al-Qura University, Mecca, Saudi Arabia

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

The study investigated the potential of tapioca starch (Manihot esculenta) as a raw material for food packaging enhanced with basil leaf oil, citric acid, and carboxymethyl cellulose. The objective of this study was to standardize active edible tapioca films and evaluate their physicochemical, textural, and barrier properties (oxygen and water vapor transmission rates), microbial load, brine shrimp lethality assay (BSLA), and biodegradability. Films were produced using a casting technique with tapioca starch (10 g), dried using a film-making machine, and enhanced with 0.1 g citric acid as a crosslinker, 0.5 g carboxymethyl cellulose as a filler, and 1 ml basil leaf oil as an additive. Tapioca film (30 × 21 cm, 0.25 mm thickness)exhibited 3-5% moisture, 1-2% ash, and a pH of 5-6, with tensile strengths ranging from 2.48 to 6.28 MPa and elongation at break between 10.36% and 16.75% oxygen transmission rate was 690.05 to 811.14 cc/m²/day, and water vapor transmission rate was 0.73 to 1.21 cm³/m²/24h/0.1 MPa. The inclusion of citric acid, carboxymethyl cellulose, and basil leaf oil improved the tensile strength and barrier properties, making the films suitable for packaging a variety of food products (cereals, legumes, spices, condiments, extruded products, and sugar candies) for up to 120 days. The microbial load remained below 5.7 × 10¹ CFU/g, with low toxicity (7% in BSLA), and the films degraded completely in moist topsoil within 24 days. This study highlights the tapioca starch films enhanced with carboxymethyl cellulose, citric acid and basil oilas a sustainable alternative to single-use plastics. It provides an effective packaging solution for non-perishable commodities and sugar candies with improved functional properties and environment sustainability.

Keywords: tapioca starch film, Textural analysis, Exposure test, non-toxic, biodegradability, Barrier properties

Received: 12 Apr 2025; Accepted: 02 Jun 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 Raajeswari, Manivel, TA Dhanapal, Menkinoska, Pavlovska, Helal, Sami, Alsanei, Alessa, Trajkovska Petkoska and Qari. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence: Rokayya Sami, College of Science, Taif University, Taif, Saudi Arabia

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