DEVELOPMENT OF BIOACTIVE PACKAGING BASED ON CHITOSAN WITH INCORPORATED ANTIMICROBIAL PEPTIDES
The development of active packaging systems for various food products is an urgent task for the scientific community, since the use of such packaging would help protect food products from spoilage and reduce the risk of the growth of pathogenic microorganisms. The aim of this study was to study a bioactive packaging system based on a chitosan matrix with incorporated antimicrobial peptides of animal origin. A technology for creating biohybrid film materials is proposed in this article, the antimicrobial effectiveness of which was tested using microbiological analysis of samples of chilled meat packed in them, stored under various conditions. The results showed that films with the addition of hydrolysates obtained by treatment with collagenase and elastase of cattle rectal tissues had the highest antimicrobial activity, both after 3 days of storage at room temperature and after 7 days of storage at 4 °C - the number of mesophilic aerobic and facultatively anaerobic microorganisms in samples of meat packed in these films was no more than 1,5 x 10<sup>5</sup> CFU/g in the first case and 7 x 10<sup>3</sup> CFU/g - in the second. In the control sample (packed in chitosan film without the addition of an antimicrobial agent) and intact (packed in polyethylene film), these values were 2 x 105 CFU/g and 2,6 x 10<sup>9</sup> CFU/g, respectively, after 3 days of storage at room temperature, as well as 1,1 x 10<sup>4</sup> CFU/g and 4,2 x 10<sup>8</sup> CFU/g after 7 days of storage at a temperature of 4 °С. The results obtained showed that the created biohybrid films based on chitosan are promising for use in the food industry as a packaging material.