Trans-anethole (AN), which exhibits strong insect-repellent activity against Plodia interpunctella larvae, was applied on a polyethylene terephthalate (PET) film as an active packaging coating layer. All developed films at different concentrations (25%, 30%, 40%, and 50%) exhibited significant insect repellent activities. However, these films did not significantly differ from the control film in terms of color and transparency. In addition, the developed polypropylene (PP) and PET laminated films containing 25% AN (PP/AN25/PET) exhibited strong and continuous insect-repellent activity for up to 42 days. Finally, the developed film showed 2.86-fold stronger repellent activity than that of the control film when applied to the almond flake cereals packaging. These results suggest that PP/AN25/PET could be used as a potent insect-repelling packaging film in a realistic grain-packaging system. PRACTICAL APPLICATION: A PP/trans-anethole/PET film that exhibited good insect-repellent activity for 42 days was newly developed in this study. As it showed strong insect repellency, especially in almond flake cereals packaging, it is expected to have high potential as an insect-repelling grain-packaging film.
Keywords: active packaging; food safety; insect-repelling film; trans-anethole.
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