Intelligent Packaging for Real-Time Monitoring of Food-Quality: Current and Future Developments

Andrea Dodero,Andrea Escher,Paola Lova,Simone Bertucci,Maila Castellano

doi:10.3390/app11083532

Abstract

Food packaging encompasses the topical role of preserving food, hence, extending the shelf-life, while ensuring the highest quality and safety along the production chain as well as during storage. Intelligent food packaging further develops the functions of traditional packages by introducing the capability of continuously monitoring food quality during the whole chain to assess and reduce the insurgence of food-borne disease and food waste. To this purpose, several sensing systems based on different food quality indicators have been proposed in recent years, but commercial applications remain a challenge. This review provides a critical summary of responsive systems employed in the real-time monitoring of food quality and preservation state. First, food quality indicators are briefly presented, and subsequently, their exploitation to fabricate intelligent packaging based on responsive materials is discussed. Finally, current challenges and future trends are reviewed to highlight the importance of concentrating efforts on developing new functional solutions.

Highlights

According to the World Health Organization, every year, more than 600 million cases of illness are related to supplies of contaminated food and more than 400,000 people die due to foodborne contamination [1]
Food quality can be identified by a broad number of factors including healthiness, consumer standards, nutritional values, and stability [3,4]
It is not surprising that the worldwide food industry urges for the development of systems that can be incorporated into food packaging and are able to provide real-time quality insights

Summary

Introduction

According to the World Health Organization, every year, more than 600 million cases of illness are related to supplies of contaminated food and more than 400,000 people die due to foodborne contamination [1]. Food quality can be identified by a broad number of factors including healthiness, consumer standards, nutritional values, and stability [3,4] These factors represent a topical indicator to assess the effect of food on consumer health. Despite the existence of strict standard regulations, the complete lack of real-time monitoring of food preservation state is a threat to consumer health [7,8]. With these premises, it is not surprising that the worldwide food industry urges for the development of systems that can be incorporated into food packaging and are able to provide real-time quality insights. The efforts made in recent years have led to a promising emerging field, comprised of innovative packaging technologies showing the potential to substitute conventional materials [9,10,11]

Objectives

Methods

Conclusion