Water vapour permeability, thermal and wetting properties of whey protein isolate based edible films

This study deals with the effect of whey protein isolate (WPI) and glycerol (GLY) used as a plasticizer on some physical properties of cast whey protein isolate (WPI) films. Films were prepared from heated (80 °C for 30 min) aqueous solutions of WPI at 7, 8, 9 and 10% (w/w), GLY (40%, w/w, of WPI) and WPI at 8% (w/w), GLY (30, 40, and 60%, w/w, of WPI). For all types of films, water vapour permeability for four relative humidity differentials (30–100%, 30–84%, 30–75%, and 30–53%), surface and thermal properties were measured. Varying the proportion of WPI and GLY in edible films had some effect on water vapour permeability, wetting and thermal properties of WPI films. A cumulative effect of both glycerol and protein content was observed on the water vapour permeability increase. Indeed film barrier properties are much better for the lowest WPI (7%) and GLY (40%) contents. GLY increases the degradation temperature and favours film surface wettability whereas protein content did not affects thermal properties of films.