A cultura do cará: alternativa para embalagem biodegradável e seus aspectos produtivos e econômicos

Abstract

Packaging aims to protect food by providing safety to the consumer by reducing the factors that cause product deterioration. However, its constitution, for the most part, comes from petroleum-based polymers that cause environmental impacts. Thus, studies are needed to create sustainable alternatives, such as the use of biodegradable packaging, which acts as a modified atmosphere, prolonging the shelf life of foods, while causing minimal impacts when compared to conventional plastic. Among the range of raw materials that can be used in the manufacture of these packages, starch has been gaining prominence over the years, due to its abundance and availability. The purple yam is a tuber with a high nutritional content, which has a significant role in food and nutritional security in the North and Northeast regions of Brazil, which has a little explored potential in the development of biodegradable packaging. In view of the above, this work aims to elaborate, characterize and compare the biodegradable films of sweet and fermented yams and indicate which ones have the most acceptable characteristics for the market. This study was conducted at the Agricultural Products Technology Laboratory of the Federal University of Amazonas, initially the extraction of sweet and fermented starch from the yam was carried out, followed by the evaluation of physicochemical properties, later the elaboration of the biodegradable yam films was carried out, varying from the concentration of glycerol, being evaluated the thickness, humidity, solubility, density and kinetics of water sorption. The data were submitted to analysis of variance by the F test to verify the effect of the treatments, when significant the means will be compared by the Tukey test at 5% of probability by the statistical program R. The statistical analysis showed that for the parameters moisture, proteins and carbohydrates there was no significant difference between the extraction process. The lowest levels of lipids, ash and acidity were observed in sweet starch. Sweet starch has an acidic pH while fermented starch is basic. The sweet yam starch showed, in general, the best results in most of the parameters studied. The sweet starch films showed the best characteristics of thickness, moisture, solubility and density, indicating that they can be used in the creation of an environmental and viable alternative to conventional films, adding value to the yam culture in the State of Amazonas.