In recent years, active packaging technology for extending food shelf life and intelligent packaging technology for monitoring food freshness have become essential for ensuring food safety. Among sensing technologies, pH-sensitive sensors have notable advantages, including simplicity, compactness, and affordability, making them ideal for monitoring food freshness. This study proposes an intelligent food indicator based on a composite nanofiber membrane fabricated by electrospinning. The membrane, composed of poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA), tannic acid (TA), and the natural pH-sensitive dye curcumin (CUR), was heat-treated to enhance its moisture stability for food packaging. Furthermore, the incorporation of TA and CUR into PVA provides additional benefits such as UV-blocking, antioxidant, and antimicrobial properties, effectively delaying food spoilage. The CUR-incorporated nanofibrous membrane exhibited faster detection of shrimp spoilage via colorimetric changes under increasingly alkaline conditions than film samples. Moreover, compared to film-based samples, the composite nanofiber membrane exhibited faster color change responsiveness owing to its porous and high surface area structure, thus serving as an efficient and intelligent indicator.
Keywords: Antibacterial and antioxidant activity; Electrospinning; Intelligent food packaging; Poly(vinyl alcohol)/curcumin nanofibrous membrane; pH sensor.
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