Valorization of Olive Industry Waste Products for Development of New Eco-sustainable, Multilayer Antioxidant Packaging for Food Preservation

This work deals with the design, production and evaluation of the effectiveness of novel multilayer active films, based on biopolymers and natural antioxidants, suitable for food packaging applications. Three phenolic olive extracts (named OEs), deriving from olives milling wastewaters, were analyzed in order to assess their suitability to develop antioxidant polymeric systems. The most performing extract was then selected to produce the active biodegradable films, spreading a polylactic acid (PLA) coating layer, at different percentages of OE (0-3% w/w), on a biodegradable substrate. The produced multilayer structures were then characterized by several techniques, in order to evaluate the interaction of the antioxidant phase with the polymer matrix, and its effect on the physical and functional performance of the active systems. Finally, the antioxidant capacity by ,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) spectroscopic method was carried out, suggesting that the formulated active bio-films could be considered an innovative and promising solution for antioxidant packaging of sensitive food products.