Oil-Added Agar Gelatin Edible Films for Kashar Cheese Packaging.

In recent years, there has been a growing interest in edible and biodegradable films due to their sustainability, environmental friendliness, and their functionality. In this work, oil-added agar-gelatin films were prepared and characterized in terms of water content, degree of swelling, water solubility, antioxidant activity, and antimicrobial activity. The possibility of using these edible films for Kashar cheese packaging during cold storage was investigated. Physical, chemical, and microbiological properties of the packaged cheese samples were examined for 20 days of cold storage at 4 °C. oil-added films were found to have antibacterial activity against and and antifungal activities against and . oil-added films showed high antioxidant activities, increasing with the increasing oil percentage in the formulation. The current study showed that at the end of 20 days of storage period, bacterial growth in oil-incorporated film-covered samples was 2.30 log CFU/g lower than the control samples, and the amount of yeast and mold in oil-added film-covered samples was 3.37 log CFU/g lower than control samples. This shows the efficiency of oil-incorporated agar-gelatin films during the refrigerated storage period. Our data evidenced the positive effect of oil-added agar-gelatin films on Kashar cheese packaging as an innovative and sustainable technique to maintain cheese quality and prevent food loss during storage.