Four students of the Faculty of Agricultural Technology Universitas Brawijaya (FTP UB) make smart packaging to extend the shelf life of shrimp called Smart-Vineble.
The idea came from the background that shrimp as one of Indonesia’s marine commodities is prone to experience quality decline while the demand for shrimp exports to foreign countries is quite high.
Isbakhul Lailatil Fibriyah (TIP), Nadyah Eka Nurizza (THP), Elshafira Firda Amaliyah (THP), and Ulaya Warda Azizah (TIP) made a package that can extend the shelf life while providing information on the feasibility of shrimp quality in real time so that consumers can know the freshness of the product.
Isbakhul as the team leader said that research on smart packaging has actually been carried out, especially in the food industry. However, the resulting packaging is still easily penetrated by water and its antimicrobial ability is less than optimal.
Therefore, Isbakhul and her team tried to combine the potential of chitosan, cinnamon essential oil, and anthocyanin compounds from purple cabbage as smart packaging that is quality controller, easy to use, cheap, and ready to use.
“There are two functions in packaging, namely active and intelligent packaging, which can be a new breakthrough in the packaging industry. Active packaging is presented by using the incorporation of chitosan and essential oil nano emulsion. Meanwhile, the ability of edible coatings as intelligent packaging is presented so that consumers can find out quality information or product quality through the role of color indicators,” said Isbakhul.
She added that the use of chitosan in packaging can improve the characteristics of the edible film formed, such as stability to temperature changes, strength, elasticity, and antimicrobial properties. Meanwhile, essential oils are used for their antioxidant and antimicrobial properties to improve the quality of the films formed.
The combination of active packaging in the form of chitosan and cinnamon essential oil with intelligent packaging in the form of purple cabbage anthocyanins is expected to realize smart packaging that is more effective and efficient, both to extend the shelf life and provide information on the feasibility of fresh shrimp quality.
They hopes that the smart packaging, called Smart-Vineble, can be a solution to the problem of handling post-harvest shrimp commodities in Indonesia. (ISB/ Humas UB/ Trans. Iir).
