en تخصصي Special Original article Original article <div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"><strong>Background: </strong>Active packaging represents a defining strategy to improve food quality and safety of the packaged foods. This study aimed to evaluate the<em> in vitro</em> ability of commercial biopolymeric foams, namely Mater-Bi (MB), activated with 20% of carvacrol, to develop a completely biodegradable and compostable packaging to inhibit the growth of spoilage and pathogenic yeasts.<br> <strong>Methods:</strong> MB foams, with and without carvacrol, were produced by melt mixing and the foaming process was performed in a laboratory press. The antifungal activity of foams containing carvacrol was tested applying the disk diffusion method. Statistical analysis was done using XLStat software version 7.5.2 for Excel.<br> <strong>Results:</strong> Statistically significant differences (<em>p</em><0.05) were observed between sensitivity of the tested yeasts. <em>Candida zeylanoides </em>4G362 and <em>Rhodotorula mucilaginosa</em> ICE29 were found to be the most sensitive strains with a clear zone of 28.9&plusmn;0.1 and 29.0&plusmn;0.1 mm, respectively. However, <em>Aureobasidium pullulans</em> was the least sensitive yeast strain, showing clear zone of 20.4&plusmn;0.3 mm.<br> <strong>Conclusion:</strong> This study provided, for the first time, an <em>in vitro</em> analysis of the antifungal activity of MB foams activated with carvacrol against yeasts that commonly contaminate raw materials and processed foods. In conclusion, this biopolymer was highly effective against all the yeasts used as indicators strains.<br> <br> <strong>DOI:</strong> 10.18502/jfqhc.7.3.4145</span></span></div> Biopolymers, Carvacrol, Yeasts, Disk Diffusion Antimicrobial Tests, Food Packaging 136 141 http://jfqhc.ssu.ac.ir/browse.php?a_code=A-10-713-3&slc_lang=en&sid=1 R. Gaglio raimondo.gaglio@unipa.it 0000-0002-2080-0836 Yes Dipartimento Scienze Agrarie, Alimentari e Forestali, Università degli Studi di Palermo, Viale delle Scienze 4, 90128 Palermo, Italy L. Botta No Dipartimento di Ingegneria, UdR INSTM di Palermo, Università degli Studi di Palermo, Viale delle Scienze, 90128 Palermo, Italy G. Garofalo No Dipartimento Scienze Agrarie, Alimentari e Forestali, Università degli Studi di Palermo, Viale delle Scienze 4, 90128 Palermo, Italy G. Guida No Dipartimento Scienze Agrarie, Alimentari e Forestali, Università degli Studi di Palermo, Viale delle Scienze 4, 90128 Palermo, Italy L. Settanni No Dipartimento Scienze Agrarie, Alimentari e Forestali, Università degli Studi di Palermo, Viale delle Scienze 4, 90128 Palermo, Italy F. Lopresti No Dipartimento di Ingegneria, UdR INSTM di Palermo, Università degli Studi di Palermo, Viale delle Scienze, 90128 Palermo, Italy