Water-soluble agar polymer film and method for the production thereof

Abstract

The present invention describes a polymer film that is totally water-soluble, hot or cold, which is produced from agar, a natural hydrocolloid polysaccharide widely used in the food industry. The agar has been modified by a hot reaction in acid medium. The change increased the dissolution capacity of the agar in aqueous medium without affecting the property thereof to form films in the presence of a plasticizing agent, since, in the original form thereof, the agar exhibits low solubility in water at ambient temperature and no other film exhibits rapid dissolution for use as a food-product vehicle system. The film produced will serve as support for the incorporation of natural, artificial and/or functional foodstuffs. It may be used, furthermore, in the pharmaceutical industry as a vehicle for active principles. The advantages of using the present film include, notably, the atoxicity and rapid elimination thereof, without metabolization by the organism, in addition to the simple production technology.