Recently, incorporation of natural filler such as chitosan into edible film to produce food
packaging material is of particular interest due to the improvement in the properties of the
film such as mechanical, morphological and optical properties of the edible film. In this work,
tapioca starch-based edible film was prepared with different concentrations of chitosan; 0, 20,
40, 60, 80% w/w of dry starch solid weight. The effects of varying the chitosan concentration
on the mechanical properties (tensile strength (TS), elongation at break (EAB), and Young
modulus (YM)), morphological and optical properties (color and transparency) of the edible
films were investigated. There was 492% increment in TS value of the edible films when
chitosan was added up to 60% w/w (21.23 MPa) compared to neat starch film (3.58 MPa). The
60% w/w chitosan films exhibited smooth and even structure which indicated both chitosan
and tapioca starch compounds were blended homogeneously. However, 60% w/w chitosan
film exhibited very high YM value (2842.5 MPa) and low EAB value (2.46%) which might
limit its application. Effects of chitosan concentration on optical properties could be considered
negligible. The improvements in TS and morphological structure of the edible films will be
beneficial for the potential application of film as food packaging material in which high TS is
important to protect the structure of food and while morphological structure can be related to
the aesthetical appearance of the food packaging materials.