Summary

About 270,000 metric tons of vegetables and fruits are being wasted annually and as a result, the loss to the Sri Lankan economy is around Rs. 20 billion The post-harvest loss of the fruits and vegetables play a major role in this annual waste and that includes the ripening during the storage resulting damages while transporting. Also, the microbial attacks on fruits and vegetables responsible for these losses.
Thus, the storage life of fruits and vegetables can be extended greatly by absorbing the ethylene and
moisture, and the use of antimicrobial agents against the growth of microbes found to be essential for having a healthy food to the end user, which enables minimizing the waste of vegetables and fruits.
Therefore, a packaging with a capability of delaying the ripening and antimicrobial activity would play a major role in the economic growth of the country.
Further, from the local point of view, this does break new ground in the area of packaging and post-harvest technology. This is a newly emerging innovative area showing greater potential in packaging industry.
Also, the invention would greatly support the decision taken by the government to ban the plastic packaging and food wrappers, as these proposed packaging material consist of the films made by biodegradable cellulose nano fibers.
Therefore, this work will open up another new area of research while contributing to new knowledge to the field of science and technology as well as the packaging industries. Findings are very likely to be publishable in one patent, four or more SCI journals and Abstracts in International/Local conference proceedings. Use of funding obtained to train a postgraduate student would also contribute to capacity development in Sri Lanka.

Objectives

The general objective of this research is to use rice straw and water hyacinths which are widely available waste raw materials, to prepare cellulose nanostructures, and to address the microbial the ripening time of fruits by using same. In the framework of this work, the main focus is on the colloidal dispersions of cellulose nanostructures from sustainable raw materials and to examine their fruit and vegetable packaging applications. The overarching aim will be achieved through the specific objectives of the research.

The specific objectives would be:

(1) Preparation and characterization of aqueous dispersions of cellulose nanostructures from rice straw and water hyacinth.

(2) Study of colloidal stability parameters of the resulting dispersions.

(3) Surface modification of cellulose nanodispersions with ripening delaying molecules such as 1-methylcyclopropane (1-MCP) or hexanal and the characterization thereof.

(4) Preparation of structural patterns in order to achieve the antimicrobial properties.

(5) Study of antimicrobial properties of said cellulose nanostructures and their formulation to thin films which are mentioned above.

(6) Characterize the physicochemical, mechanical and thermal properties of the developed thin films.

(7) Determination of barrier properties on gas, moisture, etc. via permeability testing of the thin films of cellulose nano fibers.

(8) Study of post-harvest quality parameters of the fruits and vegetables such as apple, strawberry, mango, papaya, carrot, beet, bitter gourd, etc. with the thin film coating

Major Equipment Facilitated by Grant