RRJoDST (2017) 17-23 © STM Journals 2017. All Rights Reserved Page 17 Research and Reviews: Journal of Dairy Science and Technology ISSN: 2319-3409 (Online), ISSN: 2349-3704 (Print) Volume 6, Issue 1 www.stmjournals.com Electrospun Structures for Dairy and Food Packaging Applications Gaurav Kumar Deshwal, Narender Raju Panjagari* Dairy Technology Division, ICAR-National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal, Haryana, India Abstract Electrospinning is an electrostatic fiber fabrication technique, in which a nonwoven mat of long fibers can be assembled into a three-dimensional structure due to bending instability of the spinning jet. Owing to its versatile nature and potential for applications in diverse fields including food packaging has been gaining more interest. It is a flexible and easy tool for producing ultrathin sized by applying electrical force. In this process, altering the spinning solutions and process parameters could lead to fiber production with different properties enabling scope for different applications such as gas sensors, antimicrobial structures, water absorbing pads, etc. Keywords: Electrospun, food, fibres, packaging *Author for Correspondence E-mail: pnr.ndri@gmail.com INTRODUCTION With a significant shift in India’s demographic profile in favour of younger population, increasing surplus incomes, rising urbanization and changing lifestyles, food consumption patterns are steadily changing in favor of packaged and branded food products. Day-by- day consumers are becoming “smart” and expect their packaged food to be convenient, communicative and safe; in other words, it should be “smart”. These trends and demands have resulted in emergence of various technologies such as active packaging including antimicrobial packaging, intelligent or smart packaging, biodegradable and nanocomposites packaging. Recently, electrospinning technique has been extensively used for developing active and intelligent packaging systems for food applications, which include electrospun mats as absorbing and releasing agents and smart sensors. Electrospinning is an electrostatic fiber fabrication technique which has recently gained more interest and attention owing to its versatile nature and potential for applications in diverse fields such as medical devices in drug release, tissue scaffolds, wound dressings, and in chemical separation and purification application as affinity membranes, filter media, etc. It is a flexible and easy tool for producing ultrathin sized by applying electrical force. Further they are utilized for commercial purposes, such as textiles finishing, cosmetics, household appliances and food contact materials [1]. In the electrospinning process, nonwoven mat of long fibers can be assembled into a three- dimensional structure due to bending instability of the spinning jet. Altering the spinning solutions and process parameters could lead to fiber production with different properties enabling scope for different application [2]. In the present article, the emerging applications of electrospinning in the area of dairy and food products packaging are briefly discussed. PRINCIPLE OF ELECTROSPINNING AND ELECTROSPRAYING TECHNIQUE Ultrathin fibres from conducting polymers can be produced by electrospinning. A conducting polymer solution or melted polymer is fed through nozzle jets to form droplets and subjected to a very high voltage (10–40 kV). Due to electrostatic force generated as a consequence of the applied high voltage, the fibres are drawn towards the collector where either the solvent evaporates or cooling occurs, resulting in the formation of nanofibres. An illustration of electrospinning apparatus setup is shown in Figure 1. In electrospinning, droplets are formed from the polymer solvent solution