Active biodegradable films prepared from polylactic acid (PLA)/roselle calyx extract (RCE)/Zinc Oxide Nanorod (ZnO-N) were fabricated as natural packaging materials for hazelnuts protection against microbial contamination and lipid oxidation. The PLA active films with ZnO-N (1, 3, and 5% w/w), and roselle calyx extract (0.5 g) were made by the casting solution technique. The fungal, microbial, chemical, and sensory properties of hazelnuts were measured during 9 months of conservation at 4°C. On the 6 and 9th months, moisture content was evaluated as %2.6 and 2.2% in the control sample whereas the moisture content of hazelnuts was measured as 3.6% and 2.9% packaged with PLA/RCE/%5 ZnO-N. At the last of experiments, the peroxide value (PV) was measured as 0.91 meq O2 kg-1 packaged with neat biocompatible films, whereas PV value was detected as 0.65 meq O2 kg-1 in packaged hazelnuts with %5 ZnO-N. Total microbial count ranged between 4.9 cfu g-1 for hazelnuts packaged with neat PLA and 3.7 cfu g-1 for hazelnuts specimens packaged with %5 ZnO-N after 9 months of storage. At 9 months, by increasing the level of ZnO-N from 1% to 5%, the mold count was reduced from 3.64 to 3.01 CFU g-1. The fungal contamination in the neat specimens was 3.95 CFU g-1. Sensory quality indicated that hazelnuts with ZnO-N had a significant impact on flavor and aroma, and the highest quality of sensory evaluation was related to hazelnuts packaged with PLA/5% ZnO-N/RCE. Flavor and aroma indices of hazelnuts packaged with %5 ZnO-N reached 3.5 and 4.5 respectively after 9 months of storage. The obtained findings indicate that biopackaging could be utilized to enhance microbial quality and inhibit oxidation reactions of hazelnuts during cold storage. Our results could be beneficial for introducing attractive characteristics to the biodegradable film packaging for example active film containing anthocyanin/nanofiller and can be applied when selecting a smart packaging for detection of food spoilage. تفاصيل المقالة