Active packaging materials in the agri-food industry: a commitment to quality and safety
Date
2025-04-21
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Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Universidad CES
Abstract
This study aimed to investigate the effects of essential oils (EOs) within active packaging for food preservation, which there is a lack of reviews for this topic. A thorough research was made using four databases (ScienceDirect, SciELO, Scopus and Google Scholar) and 90 articles were found with remarkable topics such as antimicrobial and antioxidant capacity, stability of EOs, mechanical properties, incorporation of EOs into their respective active packaging, effects on organoleptic characteristics and toxicology. The results of this investigation showed that the use of EOs are an optimal, efficient and safe alternative to commercially available synthetic preservatives, showing good antimicrobial activity and antioxidant capacity, avoiding microbial growth in the film and oxidative processes that can happen due to environmental exposure such as atmospheric oxygen, light, temperature and humidity. Mechanical properties, although very variable, showed no significant difference on making good or bad active packages for food preservation. Therefore, the implementation of EOs was determined to be an effective and safe measure for the agri-food industry.
Description
Keywords
Active packaging, Composite film, Essential oil, Food preservation, Toxicity