The best known and most widely used active packaging technologies for foods today are those engineered to remove undesirable substances from the headspace of a package through absorption, adsorption or scavenging. To achieve this goal a physical or chemical absorbent or adsorbent is incorporated in the packaging material or added to the package by means of a sachet. In most publications
The packaging sector is an important global industry, representing about 2% of the Gross National Product (GNP) of the developed countries. The value of the packaging industry is about 345 million euros worldwide, of which Europe represents a third. Fifty per cent of this market is packaging for food. Forecasts suggest that the sector will continue to grow in size and importance Many cooking and preservation processes still largely depend on effective packaging, for example canning, aseptic, sous vide and baking processes. Processes such as drying and freezing would be lost without protective packaging after processing to control product exposure to the effects of oxygen light, water vapour, bacterial and other contaminants. However, modern food packaging no longer has just a passive role in protecting and marketing the product. It increasingly has an active role in processing, preservation
Antimicrobial packaging is one of many applications of active packaging (Floros et al., 1997). Active packaging is the packaging system which possesses attributes beyond basic barrier properties which are achieved by adding active ingredients in the packaging system and/or using actively functional polymers (Han and Rooney, 2002). Antimicrobial packaging is the packaging system that is able to kill or inhibit spoilage and pathogenic microorganisms that are contaminating foods
6.1 Introduction The modern food industry is called on to deliver seemingly contradictory market demands. On the one hand consumers want improved safety and sensory quality, together with increased nutritional properties, extended shelf-life and convenience in preparation and use. On the other they want food with a traditional, wholesome image, with less processing and fewer additives
Interactions within a package system refer to the exchange of mass and energy between the packaged food, the packaging material and the external environment. Food-packaging interactions can be defined as an interplay between food, packaging, and the environment, which produces an effect on the food, and/or package (Hotchkiss, 1997). Mass transfer processes in packaging systems are normally referred to as permeation, migration and absorption(fig8.1). Permeation is the process resulting from two basic mechanisms
During recent years there has been an explosive growth in the market for fresh prepared fruit and vegetable (i.e. produceproducts. The main driving force for this market growth is the increasing consumer demand for fresh, healthy, convenient and additive-free prepared product items. However, fresh prepared produce items are highly perishable and prone to the major spoilage mechanisms of enzymic discoloration, moisture loss and microbial growth. Good manufacturing and handling practices along with the appropriate use of modified atmosphere packaging(mp)are relatively effective at inhibiting
Modified atmosphere packaged (MAP )prepared fresh produce provides substrates and environmental conditions conducive to the survival and growth of microorganisms. Minimal processing treatments such as peeling and slicing disrupt surface tissues, expose cytoplasm and provide a potentially richer source of nutrients than intact produce(Brackett 1994; Barry-Ryan and O'Beirne, 1998, 2000). This, combined with high Aw and either close to neutral (vegetables) or low acid (many fruits) tissue pH, facilitate microbial growth (Beuchat, 1996)
