Obtaining and Characterizing Bioplastic Films from Agro-Industrial Waste for Use in Manchego Cheese Packaging

This research focuses on developing bioplastic films using agrifood industrial waste, which included starch from avocado seed, cellulose from cornstalk, carrot and beet peel, and pulp from a food company in México. The films were produced with a matrix of gelatin and glycerol, and different formulations of starch and cellulose. The films were characterized and tested as wrappers of Manchego cheese. The films containing starch are transparent; films with cellulose showed opacity and paper-like structure. Films containing starch–cornstalk cellulose showed the highest hydrophobic properties. In turn, films with carrot cellulose had the highest plastic properties with high elongation capacity and the lowest Young modules; films with starch and other celluloses showed the opposite data. The highest thermal capacity was observed in films containing cellulose from cornstalks and beet waste. In turn, the highest temperatures of transition, crystallization, and melting were registered in films containing starch. Films with starch and cellulose served well as wrappers of Manchego cheese, conserving 92% of the weight of cheese after 21 days of storage at 4 °C. All films were biodegradable in compost after 10 days, and they were degradable by physicochemical factors after 40 days.