Antibacterial film based on κ-carrageenan with benzyl isothiocyanate-β-cyclodextrin inclusion complex: Characterization and application in chicken preservation

To effectively utilize the potent antibacterial capacity of benzyl isothiocyanate (BITC), attempts have been made to apply it in the natural biopolymeric film by solving its high volatility. In this study, we encapsulated BITC in the carrier β-cyclodextrin (βCD) to form an inclusion complex to protect BITC from volatilization and then introduced the complex to κ-carrageenan (KC) to fabricate an antibacterial food packaging film. The addition of the BITC-βCD complex enhanced the storage modulus and promoted a denser network structure formation for KC hydrogel by rheological measurements and microstructure observations, respectively. In terms of antibacterial capacity, BITC-βCD-KC film displayed favorable antibacterial potential against both Staphylococcus aureus and Listeria monocytogenes after co-incubation for 18 h, with the inhibition zone diameters of 25.7 mm and 16.7 mm, respectively. As an active packing material, the BITC-βCD-KC film exhibited a sustained inhibition effect against the proliferation of these two bacteria on the chicken meat surface at 25 °C. Moreover, the chicken breasts packaged with BITC-βCD-KC film had a total viable count of 4.7 Log CFU/g, obviously lower than that of the unpackaged sample (9.8 Log CFU/g) after storage at 4 °C for 8 days. These results suggested that the KC film with the BITC-βCD inclusion complex might have promising potential as an antibacterial food packaging material for food preservation.