Antimicrobial films containing lysozyme for active packaging obtained by sol-gel technique

The antimicrobial activity of the obtained surface modified films was tested on agar plates against Micrococcus lysodeikticus. Furthermore, the stability of the coating was evaluated in order to verify a possible migration of lysozyme to a liquid media (buffered solution at pH 6.2), due to a possible release from the plastic substrate. The quantitative determination of the released lysozyme in the buffered solution was performed by HPLC UV-DAD. Results show that the incorporation of lysozyme into the sol-gel modified PET do not lead to a loss of activity of the enzyme, and suggest a significant potential for the use of these packaging materials.