Background of the Study

The world’s food waste problem is increasing. An estimated 1.3 billion tons of food is wasted
globally each year, one third of all food produced for human consumption, according to
the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations. The global quantitative
food losses and waste per year are roughly 30% for cereals, 40-50% for root crops, fruits and
vegetables, 20% for oil seeds, meat and dairy plus 35% for fish. To lessen the food waste every
year, scientists find ways to prolong the shelf-life of the products, mostly for the fruits and
vegetables. One of the method introduce is the use of food coating.

Food coating are biodegradable and edible films from carbohydrates and proteins adds value to
low-cost raw materials and can play an important role in food preservation (Dias A., et. al,
2009). Most of the films was made from starch and plasticizers like, gylcerin, sorbitol, etc. In
this research, the reseacher used cassava starch and rosemary extract to create food coating
that can prolong tomatoes shelf-life.

Rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis L.) is a shrub grown in many parts of the world, and it has
been cultivated for a long time for use in medicine, cosmetics, and cosmetics. Studies were
made on rosemary essential oil that focused on its antimicrobial activity against several
pathogenic microorganisms (Gonzalez M., et. al, 2016). The extracts from rosemary is a source
of bioactive ingredients like phenolic acids, flavonoids, diterpenoids and triterpenes. The major
component of its extract are carnosic acid, carnosol and rosmarinic acid, they are known for
their high antioxidant activity. Rosemary extracts are widely used food additives. Some studies
shown that the addition of rosemary extract into food products, such as meat and fish, slowing
down or preventing the oxidation reactions.( Hernadez D., Jaramillo C., et. al, 2017)

Cassava or tapioca starch is obtained from the roots of cassava plant.. It has many food and
industrial uses, which are linked to its functional properties. Although the basic properties of
this starch are known, much research is required to complete our knowledge, especially as
regards varietal differences in composition and functional properties.
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Base on the research made by Hernadez D., Jaramillo C., et. al, entitled “Edible cassava starch
films carrying rosemary antioxidant extracts for potential use as active food packaging”, they
blend 10 g of dried rosemary leaves and 100 mL of distilled water and placed it in a
thermostatic bath at 50 °C for 60 min. Once obtained, the extracts were cooled, filtered and
stored at 4 °C in dark flasks until used. The extraction yield was 2.6 mg of dried extract/100 mL
of sample.

In the same research, control films were prepared based on blends containing starch (5.0 g),
glycerol (1.5 g) and distilled water (93.5 g). In order to prepare the active films, a water mass
(5 g, 10 g or 20 g) from the formulations was replaced with the same amount of aqueous
rosemary extract. Each blend was homogenized for 40 min and then heated until 96 °C (heating
rate = 3 °C/min), under constant stirring. The formulations were degassed for 7 min with a
mechanical vacuum pump, dispensed into polypropylene plates and dried at 50 °C for 24 h.
Films were conditioned at room temperature into desiccators containing supersaturated
solution of sodium bromide (RH ≈ 57%) for 48 h, prior to characterization studies.

(https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0268005X16304659)

In a reseach, “Biodegradable films based on rice starch and rice flour”, Rice starch and rice flour
films were prepared by a casting technique. Glycerol and sorbitol were used as plasticizers at
concentrations of 0.20 and 0.30 g/g dry raw material (starch or flour). Aqueous solutions
containing 5% of raw material (starch or flour) were prepared and stirred for 15 min at 4000
rpm. Glycerol and sorbitol was added to the aqueous solution and the mixture was heated to
85C in a thermal bath under constant stirring during 1 h to promote the starch gelatinization,
and poured homogeneously ontoplexiglass plates and dried at 30C for 14 h in an oven
withcirculating air. For preparation of rice flour films, the pH of theaqueous solution was
adjusted to 10.0 with NaOH solution (0.1 N),in order to promote protein solubilization.

(https://reader.elsevier.com/reader/sd/pii/S0733521009001817?token=8C5210305A65C7B88BFA192C
A50EA7269E4DD8824ED771FCEC57F9631AF028C91BB51977FCD3DAD673745FFF5CEEBB86)