Chitosan Application as Edible Packaging Raw Material

Chitosan extracted from shrimp or crab can be made as raw material for biodegradable packaging. The purpose of this article is to review the advantages of chitosan as a raw material for packaging, the extraction method of chitosan, the properties and quality of chitosan, biodegradable packaging, manufacturing methods, and properties of packaging made from chitosan and the development of chitosan products for packaging materials. Chitosan is a raw material for packaging that can be parsed, commonly called biodegradable packaging, non-toxic and anti-bacterial. The method of making chitosan is removing minerals and removing protein from shrimp, crab, or ranjungan shells to obtain chitin, followed by the chitin acetylation process to obtain chitosan. The quality of chitosan is listed in SNI No.7949 (2013), where this standardization includes color, moisture content, ash content, nitrogen content, and degree of deacetylation. Chitosan has been used for edible coating material and edible film material, both of which have different manufacturing methods and characteristics. The development of chitosan as raw material for degradable packaging is that chitosan is made in nanoparticle size.