Investigating the effectiveness of electrospun polyvinyl alcohol nanofibers containing eucalyptus essential oil in increasing shelf life and improving the quality of ground beef

The objective of the current study was to encapsulate eucalyptus essential oil (EEO) within polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) nanofibers using the electrospinning technique. This approach aimed to enhance the shelf life and improve the quality of minced beef during a 12-day refrigerated storage period. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) images of the produced PVA nanofibers showed that all the nanofibers were thin, well-defined, smooth, and without any knot-like structures. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) results indicated the absence of chemical interactions between EEO and the PVA polymer matrix, and it was determined that the essential oil was well encapsulated in the nanofibers. PVA/EEO nanofiber film showed a significant reduction in microbial growth of total bacteria (42.73%), psychrophilic bacteria (52.92%), and chemical parameters peroxide (48.51%), total volatile nitrogenous bases (25.4%), and thiobarbituric acid (56.76%) in minced meat compared to the control group during the storage period, which resulted in an increase in the shelf life of minced meat up to 12 days. Furthermore, the results indicated that the PVA/EEO treatment showed better color characteristics (L*, a*, b*) than the other groups during storage. On average, the PVA/EEO treatment showed an improvement of 18.46% in color parameters compared to the control samples. These findings suggest that biopolymer-based active packaging materials, such as PVA/EEO nanofibers, may be effectively used in meat products to preserve and improve quality.