Effects of cassava fibers and wheat fibers in starch foams packaging

Abstract

The utilization of renewable resources in packaging can provide solutions to ecological problems such as waste quantity. Agricultural resources can be an alternative as raw material and starch can be used because this natural polysaccharide can form resistant foam when wet and warm. The starch foam is obtained by thermopressing process that consists in two parallel steel plates where starch dough (cassava starch, water and additives) is processed to form a rigid structure by swelling, gelatinization and network formation. Natural fibers can be used to improve the mechanical properties of starch foams. In this project were added 1, 2 and 3% of cassava fiber (long fiber) and 1, 2 and 3% of wheat fiber (short fiber) in the starch dough and the foams were characterized by physical methods (compression resistance and density). Most fibers quantity result in foams with higher density, whatever the fiber kind. In other side, most fibers quantity did not improve the foam compression resistance. The results show that did not happen the intrinsic adhesion of the fiber-matrix interface.