Abstract
Nowadays food preservation, quality maintenance, and safety are major growing concerns of the food industry. It is evident that over time consumers’ demand for natural and safe food products with stringent regulations to prevent food-borne infectious diseases. Antimicrobial packaging which is thought to be a subset of active packaging and controlled release packaging is one such promising technology which effectively impregnates the antimicrobial into the food packaging film material and subsequently delivers it over the stipulated period of time to kill the pathogenic microorganisms affecting food products thereby increasing the shelf life to severe folds. This paper presents a picture of the recent research on antimicrobial agents that are aimed at enhancing and improving food quality and safety by reduction of pathogen growth and extension of shelf life, in a form of a comprehensive review. Examination of the available antimicrobial packaging technologies is also presented along with their significant impact on food safety. This article entails various antimicrobial agents for commercial applications, as well as the difference between the use of antimicrobials under laboratory scale and real time applications. Development of resistance amongst microorganisms is considered as a future implication of antimicrobials with an aim to come up with actual efficacies in extension of shelf life as well as reduction in bacterial growth through the upcoming and promising use of antimicrobials in food packaging for the forthcoming research down the line.
Highlights
Food spoilage is the process of contamination of foods leading to loss of color, texture, and their nutritive value and permits growth of pathogenic microbes, which deteriorates the quality of the product and makes it non-edible
Antimicrobial agent is integrated either directly into food particle or to the packaging material where it is released over a period of time to maintain the products quality, as well as its safety leading to its extended shelf life
The antimicrobial substance has to possess the active function of maintaining the concentration above the minimal inhibitory concentration during the entire storage period or shelf life in order to prevent the growth of target microorganisms
Summary
Food spoilage is the process of contamination of foods leading to loss of color, texture, and their nutritive value and permits growth of pathogenic microbes, which deteriorates the quality of the product and makes it non-edible. Safety, and shelf life of the food product has gained significant attention nowadays, still there are increasing concerns over food spoilage and its ingredient sourcing trouble among consumers (Burt, 2004). These concerns demand a need for more effective food quality regulation systems for its protection, preservation, and transport to consumers in a wholesome form. This is primarily due to complex interactions with the food matrix or by natural degradation with time causing loss of shelf-life (Kester and Fennema, 1986; Ouattara et al, 2000b; Chi-Zhang et al, 2004)
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