Suitability of starch/carvacrol nanofibers as biopreservatives for minimizing the fungal spoilage of bread.

The objective of this study was to evaluate the in vitro susceptibility of fungi to starch/carvacrol nanofibers produced by electrospinning. The nanofibers were incorporated into bread dough or used in the development of active packages to minimize bread spoilage. In agar diffusion and micro-atmosphere assays, the nanofibers with 30 % or 40 % carvacrol presented inhibition zones with low growth and were effective inhibiting both the fungi evaluated in this work. The MICs for nanofibers with 30 % carvacrol were 0.098 and 9.8 mg/mL against Penicillium sp. and Aspergillus flavus, respectively; for the 40 % nanofibers, the MIC was 19.6 mg/mL against Aspergillus flavus. As for MFC, only the 30 % nanofibers exerted fungicidal effect. The treatments administered directly to the bread dough had low colony-forming unit. For bioactive packages, nonwovens with 30 % carvacrol were effective in preventing bread spoilage. Thus, nanofibers are a good alternative to chemical additives or bioactive packages in food industry.