During the last two decades the interest in edible and biodegradable materials has increased due to their environmental benefits. The most common materials used to form edible films and coatings are polysaccharides, proteins and lipid compounds. Whey the by product of cheese-making, is one of the biggest reserviors of food protein remaining largely outside human consumption channels. Zein, prolamine of corn is the most important protein in corn. The objectives of this work were to determine the mechanical, thermal, thermomechanical, surface evaluation and barrier properties laminated films from whey protein and zein layers. Glycerol plasticized whey protein and glycerol, olive oil zein films were prepared by casting method. These films were laminated by cold press in five minutes.Whey protein films had lower mechanical and water vapor permeability compare to zein films. Zein lamination improved the mechanical and water vapor permeability of whey protein films by increasing tensile strength (TS) and decreasing water vapor permeability. However elongation of laminated films were less than whey protein films. Differential scanning calorimetric (DSC) and dynamics mechanical thermal analysis (DMTA) are two techniques to investigate thermal properties. Both of them showed that lamination of zein film contain glycerol and olive oil as a plasticizer increase glass transition temperature (T g ) of whey protein films. Whey protein films that were laminated to zein - olive oil had more T g compare to zein- glycerol film. DMTA results showed increase in storage modulus of laminating films. DSC thermogram didn ' t show any melting or crystallization peak that related to plasticizers. AFM images were used to evaluate surface topography (qualitative parameter) and roughness (quantitative parameter) of the films. Zein-glycerol plasticized film had smoother surface and lower roughness than other films. Lamination one layer of zein film could decrease roughness of whey protein films.No relation between WVP and roughnesses of films were observed.
