CHEMICAL ENGINEERING TRANSACTIONS VOL. 57, 2017 A publication of The Italian Association of Chemical Engineering Online at www.aidic.it/cet Guest Editors: Sauro Pierucci, Jiří Jaromír Klemeš, Laura Piazza, Serafim Bakalis Copyright © 2017, AIDIC Servizi S.r.l. ISBN 978-88-95608- 48-8; ISSN 2283-9216 Development and Active Biodegradable Film Evaluation Incorporated with Oregano Essential Oil and Nanoclay Gabriella C. de S. Takahashi a , Heloisa D. Barbosa a , Rita de C. Bergamasco a , Grasiele S. Madrona a , Lucinéia A. C. Tonon a , Fábio Yamashita b , Mônica R. da S. Scapim* a a Department of Food Engineering, State University of Maringá - UEM, Colombo Avenue, 5790, Maringá, Paraná - Brazil b Department of Food Science and Technology, State Universisityof Londrina – UEL, Londrina, PR, Brazil mrsscapim@uem.br Biodegradable and active packaging comes against the industry wishes to offer innovative products and to help protect the environment, and avid consumers for food products with lower levels of additives, being thus healthier and safer. The objective of this work was to produce and characterize active biodegradable films, by extrusion blow processing, with 58% of thermoplastic starch (29g glycerol/100 g cassava starch), 40% poly (butylene adipate co-terephthalate), 1 to 2 % oregano essential oil, 1 to 2% of nanoclay. The three films were characterized sorption properties, films permeability to water vapor and mechanical strength. The nanoclay presence increased 11% in the tensile strength and did not alter the permeability to water vapor, however the presence of the oregano essential oil decreased hydrophilicity of the films. Further studies should be conducted to assess the stability of these packages and the antimicrobial effect. 1. Introduction Plastics are the most used materials in the manufacture of food packaging due to its versatility, and because it is an excellent barrier to gases and water vapor, besides allowing visualization of the product (Avérous and Boquillon, 2004). But from the environmental point of view this material is disadvantageous, not only because it takes many years to decompose, but especially if we consider that the volume used is increasing and the portions offered to the consumer are becoming smaller, which increases even more the demand of these. In addition, the recycling of these wastes will give rise to a more restricted application material. Thus these problems can be reduced or even solved if these packages are made from biodegradable polymers that do not cause environmental impact, especially if they are obtained from renewable sources (Avérous and Boquillon, 2004; Liu et al., 2009; Zullo and Iannace, 2009). Many biodegradable synthetic polymers have good characteristics for the production of packages, but these polymers are much more expensive than conventional synthetic polymers such as polyethylene. Thus the agropolymers, which include polysaccharides, proteins and lipids, can also be used in the production of biodegradable packaging (Park et al., 2002). These agropolymers have the advantages of high biodegradability and the lowest cost compared to synthetic biodegradable polymers. Among these, starch has been note for being the most abundant and the least cost but its use, as the only polymer for the production of packaging does not seem indicated. Several studies have shown that starch films are hygroscopic and low mechanical resistance, a feature that compromises the efficiency of the packaging and the quality of the product contained therein (Santos et al., 2014; Olivato et al., 2017). The use of starch blends with biodegradable synthetic polymers can provide packages with lower costs, better biodegradability and performance. Among the synthetic biodegradable polymers it can be mentioned the poly (butylene adipate-co-terephthalate) (PBAT), that is a synthetic aliphatic-aromatic co-polyester derived from 1,4 butanediol, adipic acid, and dimethyl terephthalate, is biodegradable and compostable, is compatible with natural polymers such as starch and cellulose, and has excellent mechanical and optical properties (Witt et al., DOI: 10.3303/CET1757068 Please cite this article as: Takahashi G., Barbosa H.D., Bergamasco R., Madrona G., Tonon L.C., Yamashita F., Scapim M., 2017, Development and active biodegradable film evaluation incorporated with oregano essential oil and nanoclay, Chemical Engineering Transactions, 57, 403- 408 DOI: 10.3303/CET1757068 403