Antimicrobial Food Packaging

Abstract

The demand for foods that are fresher, safer, and have longer shelf life with environmentally friendly packaging materials poses major challenges for the food packaging industry. In order to improve the performance of packaging in meeting these varied demands, several innovative antimicrobial packaging systems are being developed, tested, and optimized in laboratories around the world. All these novel packaging technologies have great commercial potential to ensure the quality and safety of food and, hence, to reduce food waste. To develop an antimicrobial packaging system, three key considerations must be made: what antimicrobials and polymers to be used, which method to make antimicrobial package materials, and how to use these packaging materials. Therefore, this chapter is a comprehens