Publication no. C-2002-0205-03R |  VIEW ARTICLE

Tensile Properties of Extruded Corn Protein Low-Density Polyethylene Films (1).

Thomas J. Herald (2,3), Ersel Obuz (4), Wesley W. Twombly (5), and Kent D. Rausch (6). (1) This work was partially funded by Kansas State Agricultural Experiment Station, contribution no 02-53-J. (2) Associate professor, Department of Animal Sciences & Industry, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS 66506. (3) Corresponding author: Fax: 785-532-5681. E-mail: <therald@oznet.ksu.edu> (4) Graduate student, Food Science Graduate Program, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS 66506. (5) Extrusion specialist, Northern Crops Institute, Fargo, ND 58105-5183. (6) Assistant professor, Department of Agricultural Engineering, University of Illinois, Urbana, IL 61801. Cereal Chem. 79(2):261-264. Accepted December 3, 2001. Copyright 2002 American Association of Cereal Chemists, Inc.

The strength of films extruded from powder blends of corn zein or corn gluten meal (CGM) with low-density polyethylene was investigated. Tensile strength, percent elongation at break, and elastic modulus of the extruded films were measured. The tensile strength decreased from 13 MPa to approximately 10.5 MPa with zein addition, while CGM addition resulted in tensile strength of approximately 6 MPa. The higher the level of biological material (CGM or zein) in the films the lower the tensile properties. Films containing CGM exhibited significantly lower tensile properties than those containing zein. Extrusion processing of biological films is a step toward commercial viability.