Chapter 11 - Antimicrobial active packaging materials for shelf life extension of fruits and vegetables: recent trend and future perspectives

Abstract

Increasing worldwide demand for chemical-free fruits and vegetables has spawned numerous research efforts to evaluate nonsynthetic, biodegradable alternatives for food packaging. The use of multiple, complementary biological approaches for food preservation has the potential to eliminate environmental hazards while maintaining requisite quality standards for a broad spectrum of products. In this regard, antimicrobial active packaging (AP) presents a feasible mechanism for food preservation, whilst reducing the postharvest microbial deterioration rate and increasing the shelf life of fruits and vegetables, consequently, preventing substantial economic losses. The use of antibiotics, essential oils (such as hydrocinnamaldehyde, thymol, and carvacrol), alcohols, parabens, phosphates, and bacteriocins as packaging materials has been widely studied. Further, the incorporation of biodegradable antimicrobial films on food packaging presents an eco-friendly way forward. In this chapter, we stress the need to develop antimicrobial AP and enlist the various potential candidates, followed by a discussion on their action mechanism. Finally, we debate some of the limitations of this technique and highlight the challenges faced by the scientific community for the formulation and application of viable antimicrobial agents.