Applications of Chitosan for Improvement of Quality and Shelf Life of Foods: A Review

Abstract

Chitosan is a modified, natural biopolymer derived by deacetylation of chitin, a major component of the shells of crustacean. Recently, chitosan has received increased attention for its commercial applications in the biomedical, food, and chemical industries. Use of chitosan in food industry is readily seen due to its several distinctive biological activities and functional properties. The antimicrobial activity and film-forming property of chitosan make it a potential source of food preservative or coating material of natural origin. This review focuses on the applications of chitosan for improvement of quality and shelf life of various foods from agriculture, poultry, and seafood origin.

Extracellular chitin deacetylase production in solid state fermentation by native soil isolates of Penicillium monoverticillium and Fusarium oxysporum

“…Chitosan is commercially prepared from chitin. Chitin is the most abundant natural biopolymers on the earth after cellulose, extracted commercially from an abundant source of marine crustacean processing by-products (Synowiecki and Al-Khateeb 2003;Kurita 2006;No et al 2007). Efforts for the use of chitin and chitosan have intensified since efficient utilization of marine biomass resources has become an environmental priority (Jeon et al 2000).…”

“…Currently, chitosan is produced by harsh thermo-chemical N-deacetylation of chitin (Synowiecki and Al-Khateeb 2003). This chemical approach has some problems, such as environmental pollution, high energy consumption and uncontrolled reaction process, resulting poor quality chitosan with inconsistent property (different deacetylation grades and molecular weights) (Synowiecki and Al-Khateeb 2003;Chang et al 2007;No et al 2007;Zhou et al 2010;Suresh et al 2011a). Therefore, biological approach using microbial chitin deacetylase has been proposed as an attractive alternative to alkali deacetylation of chitin to chitosan (Martinou et al 1997;Tsigos et al 1999Tsigos et al , 2000Synowiecki and Al-Khateeb 2003;Beaney et al 2007;Suresh et al 2011a).…”

Chitosan multiple addition enhances laccase production from Trametes versicolor

“…It is found in shells of shrimps and crustaceans, insects, plants and the cell wall of fungi [1]. This polysaccharide is nontoxic, semicrystalline, biocompatible and biodegradable [3]. Chitosan molecules contain many exposed positively charged ions and this accounts for its potentials in mediating lots of biological activities [1,[4][5][6].…”

“…These chemical characteristics make chitosan to be of great use/importance in food processing, agriculture, nanobiotechnology and medicine [3][4][5]. It exhibits antibacterial, antitumor, antifungi and hypocholesterolemic activity [2][3][4][5][6]. In plants, it stimulates growth, induces disease defense responses, regulates immunity, reduces transpiration, extends shelf life and increases yield [2,4].…”

“…Chitosan molecules contain many exposed positively charged ions and this accounts for its potentials in mediating lots of biological activities [1,[4][5][6]. These chemical characteristics make chitosan to be of great use/importance in food processing, agriculture, nanobiotechnology and medicine [3][4][5]. It exhibits antibacterial, antitumor, antifungi and hypocholesterolemic activity [2][3][4][5][6].…”