ABSTRACT Microbial contamination and oxidative spoilage are major causes of food waste and safety issues. This study develops a novel strategy by fabricating electrospun ternary composite nanofiber membranes from hydroxypropyltrimethyl ammonium chloride chitosan (HACC), polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP), and polyvinyl alcohol (PVA). The key innovation lies in the effective integration of antibacterial and antioxidant functionalities into a single, mechanically robust matrix through HACC incorporation, as confirmed by TEM analysis which revealed a homogeneous fiber structure without phase separation. Increasing the HACC content (0–2.5 wt%) refined the fiber morphology, reduced the average diameter, and optimized the tensile strength to 119.22 MPa at 2.0 wt% HACC. The membranes exhibited excellent antibacterial activity, achieving 100% inhibition against S. aureus and E. coli , primarily by disrupting bacterial cell membranes, and showed DPPH radical scavenging activity of 53.27%. This work not only presents a high‐performance food packaging material with balanced mechanical, antibacterial, and antioxidant properties but also provides new insights into the design of multifunctional electrospun composites for sustainable food preservation.
Wang et al. (2026) studied this question.