Antimicrobial Food Packaging in Food Industry

By increasing the consumers’ trend towards ready-to-eat and minimally processed foodproducts like sausages and meat products, sandwich, fresh-cut fruits and leafy green saladsincrease the risks of food-borne outbreak since the food will be consumed without anyfurther processing or with minimal preparation. Therefore, antimicrobial additives havebeen used successfully for many years as direct ways to reduce microbial growth.However, some of these additives have been shown to be effective as indirect foodadditives incorporated into food packaging materials. Food packages are passive barriersdesigned to delay the adverse effects of the environment on the food product.Antimicrobial food packaging is directed toward the reduction of surface contamination ofprocessed, prepared foods such as sliced meats and Frankfurter sausages (hot dogs).Incorporation of antimicrobial agents in coatings to produce active paper packagingmaterials such as, silver ions, Chlorine dioxide, nisin, allylisothiocyanate, organic acids,spice-based essential oils, metal oxides, ethyl alcohol provide an attractive option forprotecting food from microorganism development and spread. Overall, antimicrobialpackaging shows promise as an effective method for the inhibition of certain bacteria infoods, but barriers to their commercial implementation continue to exist. In the currentstudy, different kind of antimicrobial agent applied in food packaging is reviewed.

کلیدواژه ها:

Food ، antimicrobial activity ، active packaging ، intelligent packaging