Effect of Heat Sealing and Storage on Mechanical and Barrier Properties of Maillard Modified Fish Skin Gelatin/L-arabinose Composite Films

The increasing accumulation of non-degradable plastic food packaging is a global concern. In this study, we aimed to optimize the heat-sealing process of fish skin gelatin/L-arabinose (FG-Ara) composite films modified by the Maillard reaction. The effects of storage temperature, humidity, and time on the mechanical and barrier properties of the modified FG-Ara composite films were investigated. The optimal heat-sealing parameters were 24 V, with vacuum, heat-sealing, and cooling times of 7.0, 3.0, and 3.0 s, respectively. After 120 days of storage at low temperatures (4, −17 °C), the tensile strength of the composite films decreased to 11.15 ± 1.64 and 13.14 ± 1.68 MPa, respectively, and the elongation at break increased by 39.07% and 18.29% compared with the initial value, respectively. Moreover, the water vapor permeability in the low-temperature treatment groups remained relatively stable at the initial stages of storage (0–40 days) and reached 39.57 ± 3.09 and 26.95 ± 18.50 g·mm/m2·d·kPa after 120 days, respectively. The milk powder packed in the FG-Ara composite films had good quality and no hardening in low-temperature environments. After 120 days of storage, the peroxide value of the soybean oil packed in the films still met the quality standard of first-grade soybean oil. Furthermore, the Arrhenius equation was used to fit the peroxide values of soybean oil at different temperatures. The maximum shelf life of soybean oil coated by the composite film was predicted to be 250 days. The experimental results demonstrated that the optimized films might serve as effective food packaging materials.