Chapter 20 - Active nanoenabled packaging for the beverage industry

Plastic food packaging plays a critical role in food preservation but is also a major contributor to global pollution and environmental degradation. This research investigates the development of a smart biodegradable food packaging material by incorporating active nanocomposites into a polysaccharide matrix. The study evaluates the material’s mechanical, barrier, and active properties, focusing on its potential to extend shelf life and reduce food waste. Experimental data demonstrates enhanced tensile strength, reduced water vapor transmission rates, and superior antimicrobial properties compared to conventional plastic packaging. The findings suggest that this innovative packaging can replace plastics in specific food applications, offering a sustainable solution to one of the food industry’s most pressing challenges. The growing consumer demand for eco-friendly alternatives further strengthens the importance of such packaging solutions in both domestic and global markets.

Part 1 Types and roles of active and intelligent packaging: active and intelligent packaging: an introduction Oxygen, ethylene and other scavengers Antimicrobial food packaging Non-migratory bioactive polymers (NMBP) in food packaging Time-temperature indicators (TTIs) The use of freshness indicators in packaging Packaging-flavour interactions Moisture regulation. Part 2 Developments in modified atmosphere packaging (MAP): Novel MAP applications for fresh-prepared produce MAP, product safety and nutritional quality Reducing pathogen risks in MAP-prepared produce Detecting leaks in modified atmosphere packaging Combining MAP with other preservation techniques Integrating MAP with new germicidal techniques Improving MAP through conceptual models. Part 3 Novel packaging and particular products: Active packaging in practice: meat fish Active packaging and colour control: the case of meat The case of fruit and vegetables. Part 4 General issues: Optimizing packaging Legislative issues relating to active and intelligent packaging Recycling packaging materials Green plastics for food packaging Integrating intelligent packaging, storage and distribution Testing consumer responses to new packaging concepts MAP performance under dynamic temperature conditions.

A great technological development for food packaging has been developed over the past few decades to satisfy consumer demands relating to more natural forms of preservation, and methods to control packaging and storage for assurance and food safety. Active packaging is, certainly, one of the most important innovations in this field. Active packages are designed to perform a role other than to provide an inert barrier between the product and the outside environment, using the possible interactions between food and package in a positive way to improve product quality and acceptability. Active food packaging is a heterogeneous concept involving a wide range of possibilities which globally can be grouped in two main goals: (i) to extend shelf life, and (ii) to facilitate processing and consumption of foods. In the first case, active packaging solutions include the systems studied to control the mechanisms of deterioration inside the package (i.e. oxygen scavengers, moisture absorbers or antimicrobial agents). In relation to the second goal, active packaging allows us to match the package to the properties of the food, to reduce costs of processing, or even to perform some processing operations in-package or to control the product history and quality. This paper reviews the different applications of active packaging and their commercial use, together with some legal aspects and future trends.

Food industries attempt to introduce a new food packaging by blending essential oils (EOs) into the polymeric matrix as an active packaging, which has great ability to preserve the quality of food and increase its shelf life by releasing active compounds within storage. The main point in designing the active packaging is controlled-release of active substances for their enhanced activity. Biopolymers are functional substances, which suggest structural integrity to sense external stimuli like temperature, pH, or ionic strength. The controlled release of EOs from active packaging and their stimuli-responsive properties can be very important for practical applications of these novel biocomposites. EOs can affect the uniformity of the polymeric matrix and physical and structural characteristics of the composites, such as moisture content, solubility in water, water vapor transmission rate, elongation at break, and tensile strength. To measure the ingredients of EOs and their migration from food packaging, chromatographic methods can be used. A head-space-solid phase micro-extraction coupled to gas chromatography (HS-SPME-GC–MS) technique is as a good process for evaluating the release of Eos. Therefore, the aims of this review were to evaluate the qualitative characteristics, release profile, and stimuli-responsiveness of active and smart food packaging nanocomposites loaded with essential oils and developing such multi-faceted packaging for advanced applications.

The active packaging materials fabricated using natural polymers is increasing in recent years. Electrohydrodynamic processing has drawn attention in active food packaging due to its potential in fabricating materials with advanced structural and functional properties. These materials have the significant capability in enhancing food's quality, safety, and shelf-life. Through electrospinning and electrospray, fibers and particles are encapsulated with bioactive compounds for active packaging applications. Understanding the principle behind electrohydrodynamics provides fundamentals in modulating the material's physicochemical properties based on the operating parameters. This review provides a deep understanding of electrospray and electrospinning, along with their advantages and recent innovations, from food packaging perspectives. The natural polymers suitable for developing active packaging films and coatings through electrohydrodynamics are intensely focused. The critical properties of the packaging system are discussed with characterization techniques. Furthermore, the limitations and prospects for natural polymers and electrohydrodynamic processing in active packaging are summarized.

Food packaging is responsible for a multitude of benefits for food items, since the beginning of humankind. These include containment, protection, preservation, transportation, identification and convenience of food. In this chapter, the evolution of the food packaging from pre-history will be addressed as well as the latest advancements, namely regarding the introduction of the ‘active packaging’ concept. The legal frame of food contact materials, in particular of active packaging, will be discussed as well as the features concerning the migration from these specific materials. Finally, current and future trends will be exploited.KeywordsFood packagingActive food packagingFood safetyFood qualityFood shelf lifeBioactiveBiopackaging

Recent developments of materials for food packaging have been attempted to utilize biodegradable materials such as nanochitosan. The composite film of nanochitosan can be synthesized with various suitable materials. In this particular study, nanochitosan was paired with polyethylene glycol (PEG) because PEG has the ability to strengthen nanochitosan film. This study aims to determine the characteristics of nanochitosan and nanochitosan-PEG in an effort to develop smart edible film designed to monitor food freshness. Several stages had been conducted, it all began with the synthesis of nanochitosan and nanochitosan-PEG. The samples of nanochitosan-PEG were conditioned consecutively with various PEG concentrations of 1, 1.5 and 2 %. Nanochitosan and nanochitosan-PEG were characterized by using Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR), Particle Size Analyzer (PSA), and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) spectrophotometer, while stability was tested with a UV-Vis spectrophotometer. The results of FTIR interpretation showed the functional groups like -OH, -NH, C=O carboxylate, P=O, and C-O-C. These functional groups featured a fairly sharp absorption peak implying the characteristic of PEG. The PSA test revealed that the nanochitosan-PEG 2 % obtained the smallest particle size. The treatment of time variations was required to react the nanochitosan-PEG 2 % with the ionic gelation method within 30, 60, and 120 min. After a 2-hour reaction, the smallest size particle reached 9.78 nm with a polydispersity index value of 0.021. The morphology of samples in the SEM test showed non-uniform spherical aggregates. The film yield proceeded to use on chicken meat for indicating the meat’s freshness. It took 48 h signifying a decline of protein content from 18.30 to 15.86 % as the film experienced a color change from purple to green according to the pH level of the decaying meat. This suggests that the film is smart and reliable to monitor food freshness through visual pH changes. HIGHLIGHTS The potential of polyethylene glycol (PEG) and nanochitosan composites as a smart food packaging is a novelty of this research. Until now, most of crosslinkers to nanochitosan only uses citric acid and acetic acid. As the result, the citric acid-crosslinked chitosan (CsC) has rigid and brittle film which means it’s prone to cracking. To overcome this issue, the addition of PEG is important to reduce the brittleness of the film because PEG acts as a binder. This research suggests that smart food packaging can be obtained from PEG-chitosan with the anthocyanin extract that functions as a food preservation detector. This research introduces the novel potential of PEG and nanochitosan composites as smart food packaging materials, addressing the limitations of traditional crosslinkers like citric acid and acetic acid. While citric acid-crosslinked nanochitosan film tends to be rigid, brittle, and prone to cracking, PEG functions as a binder in smart packaging, enhancing flexibility and reducing brittleness. The study suggests that PEG-chitosan composites combined with anthocyanin extract can serve as a food preservation detector, adding an intelligent detection feature to smart packaging applications. GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT

Carbon dots (CDs) were synthesized with the facile hydrothermal method to produce CDs/polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) active food packaging films. The CDs had a diameter ranging from 2.01 to 5.61 nm and were well-dispersed. The effects of different concentrations of CDs on mechanical strength, water resistance, morphology, optical, and thermal performance of the CDs/PVA films were discussed. The incorporation of CDs in the PVA film improved its mechanical properties, water resistance properties, UV blocking properties, and thermal stability and endowed the composite film with antioxidant and antimicrobial properties. The maximum scavenging rates of 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl and ABTS free radicals by the 0.50% CDs/PVA film were 72.81 and 97.08%, respectively. The inhibition zone diameters of the 0.50% CDs/PVA solution against Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus), Bacillus subtilis (B. subtilis), and Escherichia coli (E. coli) were 9.52, 8.21, and 9.05 mm, respectively. Using the 0.50% CDs/PVA film as active packaging, the shelf life of banana, jujube, and fried meatballs was observed to be extended significantly. These results demonstrate the viability of the CDs/PVA composite film as a promising active food packaging material.

Many food products are sensitive to oxygen which can promote rancidity, aerobic microorganism growth, browning, vitamin degradation, flavor loss, and other undesirable reactions. Active packaging concepts have been successfully applied to delay these deteriorative phenomena. In particular, oxygen scavengers help limit O2 ingress into packaging thus extending product shelf-life and thereby reducing food waste. Besides oxygen barrier polymers, other composite materials have been developed to reduce the overall O2 permeability into the package by adding oxygen scavengers or barrier fillers into the packaging structures. Typical thermoplastic food packaging barrier properties are summarized, including commercially available ones, and reported in the patent literature. Furthermore, various mathematical models have been developed to predict the oxygen transport behavior in active packaging to simulate oxygen transport in polymeric and composite materials. Such models are helpful to provide a better understanding of the mass transport fundamentals involved and shorten product development cycle time and cost. This review provides an overview of various oxygen absorber systems used in active food packaging. It also summarizes the mathematical models that simulate oxygen transport and absorption in different polymer films. Finally, these models can be adapted for other polymers and O2 scavengers to simulate O2 transfer on active polymeric materials. Simulation tools help the fundamental understanding of the O2 transport behavior and facilitate to developing novel active packaging systems that extend food shelf-life and enhance their safety.

Active and intelligent packaging systems for a modern society

Packaging is considered essential for protecting food from spoilage and enhancing food safety. Synthetic, petrochemical-derived plastics are commonly utilized, but improper use and inadequate recycling have resulted in severe environmental impacts and have imposed serious health risks. To address these concerns, biopolymer-based plastics with active and intelligent functions have been increasingly emphasized in the field of food science, with the goal of improving food safety and reducing packaging waste. In this context, gluten, a protein-based biopolymer, could be useful alternative to synthetic polymer and as well as an emerging tactic to fabricate edible and sustainable active and intelligent packaging. Eventhough there are only few article published on gluten-based packaging but yet it received significant attention to the researcher recently. No review comprehensively elucidated the potential of gluten in smart packaging application. This review primarily focuses on the advances in gluten in active and intelligent packaging film. The chemistry, properties, and source of gluten are briefly introduced and followed by the fabrication, characteristics, and properties of active and intelligent system. Gluten-based active and intelligent packaging used to maintain and monitoring various food products while they are being stored are discussed and then, the challenges and future scope of this packaging are debated. It has been demonstrated that gluten may be utilized to create functional smart food packaging. Active and intelligent packaging film/coatings can be developed by mixing gluten and other biopolymers with active ingredients. Gluten-based films and coatings have been shown to be effective in extending shelf-life and enabling real-time monitoring of spoilage in both fresh and processed foods.

Novel food packaging technologies arose as a result of consumer’s desire for convenient, ready to eat, tasty and mild processed food products with extended shelf life and maintained quality. Recent trend of lifestyle changes with less time for consumers to prepare foods posed a great challenge toward food packaging sector for the evolution of novel and innovative food packaging techniques. The novel food packaging techniques, viz. active packaging, intelligent packaging and bio active packaging which involve intentional interaction with the food or its surroundings and influence on consumer’s health have been the major innovations in the field of packaging technology. These novel techniques act by prolonging the shelf life, enhancing or maintaining the quality, providing indication and to regulate freshness of food product. The advancement in novel food packaging technologies involves retardation in oxidation, hindered respiratory process, prevention of microbial attack, prevention of moisture infusion, use of CO2 scavengers/emitters, ethylene scavengers, aroma emitters, time-temperature sensors, ripeness indicators, biosensors and sustained release of antioxidants during storage. The novel food packaging technologies besides the basic function of containment increase the margin of food quality and safety. The novel food packaging techniques thus help in fulfilling the demands throughout the food supply chain by gearing up toward persons own lifestyle. The main objectives of this review article are to provide basic knowledge of different new and innovative food packaging techniques about their way of preservative action, effectiveness and suitability in various types of foods.

The global turn from the linear to the circular economy imposes changes in common activities such as food packaging. The use of biodegradable materials such as polyvinyl alcohol, natural raw materials such as clays, and food byproducts such as chitosan to develop novel food packaging films attracts the interest of industrial and institutional research centers. In this study, novel hybrid nanostructures were synthesized via the growth of zinc oxide nanorods on the surface of two nanoclays. The obtained nanostructures were incorporated with chitosan/polyvinyl alcohol composite either as nanoreinforcement or as an active agent to develop packaging films. The developed films were characterized via XRD, FTIR, mechanical, water-vapor diffusion, water sorption, and oxygen permeability measurements. Antimicrobial activity measurements were carried out against four different pathogen microorganisms. XRD indicated the formation of an intercalated nanocomposite structure for both types of nanoclays. Furthermore, improved tensile, water/oxygen barrier, and antimicrobial properties were recorded for all films compared to the pure chitosan/polyvinyl alcohol film. Overall, the results indicated that the use of the bio-based developed films led to an extension of food shelf life and could be used as novel active food packaging materials. Among them, the most promising film was the 6% wt. ZnO@halloysite.

Antimicrobial and antioxidative electrospun cellulose acetate-essential oils nanofibrous membranes for active food packaging to extend the shelf life of perishable fruits

Anthocyanins, the most ubiquitous water-soluble phytopigments in terrestrial flora, have garnered substantial attention in sustainable food packaging research owing to their exceptional chromatic properties, pH-responsive characteristics, and putative health-promoting effects. Nevertheless, their inherent chemical lability manifests as rapid chromatic fading, structural degradation, and compromised bioactivity/bioavailability, ultimately restricting industrial implementation and incurring significant economic penalties. Recent advances in stabilization technologies through molecular encapsulation within polymeric matrices or nanoscale encapsulation systems have demonstrated remarkable potential for preserving anthocyanin integrity while augmenting multifunctionality. The integration of anthocyanins into advanced functional materials has emerged as a promising strategy for enhancing food safety and extending shelf life through smart packaging solutions. Despite their exceptional chromatic and bioactive properties, anthocyanins face challenges such as chemical instability under environmental stressors, limiting their industrial application. Recent advancements in stabilization technologies, including molecular encapsulation within polymeric matrices and nanoscale systems, have demonstrated significant potential in preserving anthocyanin integrity while enhancing multifunctionality. This review systematically explores the integration of anthocyanins with natural polymers, nanomaterials, and hybrid architectures, focusing on their roles as smart optical sensors, bioactive regulators, and functional components in active and smart packaging systems. Furthermore, the molecular interactions and interfacial phenomena governing anthocyanin stabilization are elucidated. The review also addresses current technological constraints and proposes future directions for scalable, sustainable, and optimized implementations in food preservation.