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Acta Agrophysica, 2007, 9(1), 123-133 TENSILE PROPERTIES OF WHEAT STARCH FILM WITH THE ADDITION OF SORBITOL AND ALBUMIN 1 2 Danuta M. Napierała , Jerzy Stangierski 1Department of Physics, Agricultural University ul. Wojska Polskiego 38/42, 60-637 Poznań e-mail: dnapiera@.au.poznan.pl 2Department of Food Quality Management, Agricultural University ul. Wojska Polskiego 31, 60-624 Poznań Ab s t r a c t . Mechanical properties of wheat starch film with different amount of additives: sorbitol as plasticizer and bovine serum albumin, were investigated in the simple extension test. The concentration of sorbitol in 2.5% filmogenic starch blend was 20 and 40% and the concentration of albumin was 0, 2 and 4%. The data were compared with those obtained for a commercial synthetic film based on polypropylene and polyester. Mechanical parameters: tensile strength, strain at break, stress in relative strain of 0.01 and 0.02, density of elastic energy accumulated at break and Young modulus were determined from the force-deformation curves for all the films studied. The best mechanical performance was observed for the starch films with sorbitol at 40% and albumin below 2%. The presence of globular denaturated protein in higher concentration makes it difficult for the polymer chains to form a strongly entangled network, responsible for high tensile strength. K e ywo r d s : starch film, sorbitol, albumin, mechanical properties, Young modulus INTRODUCTION For many years attempts have been made to develop food packaging materials that would