Recently, interest in smart packaging, which can show the color change of the packaging film according to the state of the food and evaluate the quality or freshness of the packaged food in real-time, is increasing. As a color indicator, a natural colorant, anthocyanin, drew a lot of attention due to their various colors as well as useful functions properties such as antioxidant activity and anti-carcinogenic and anti-inflammatory effects, prevention of cardiovascular disease, obesity, and diabetes. In particular, the pH-responsive color-changing function of anthocyanins is useful for making color indicator smart packaging films. This review addressed the latest information on the use of natural pigment anthocyanins for intelligent and active food packaging applications. Recent studies on eco-friendly biodegradable polymer-based color indicator films incorporated with anthocyanins have been addressed. Also, studies on the use of smart packaging films to monitor the freshness of foods such as milk, meat, and fish were reviewed. This review highlights the potential and challenges for the use of anthocyanins as pH-responsive color-changing films for intelligent food packaging applications, which may be beneficial for further development of smart color indicator films for practical use.

Anthocyanin food colorant and its application in pH-responsive color change indicator films.

The use of polysaccharide-based materials presents an eco-friendly technological solution, by reducing dependence on fossil resources while reducing a product’s carbon footprint, when compared to conventional plastic packaging materials. This review discusses the potential of polysaccharides as a raw material to produce multifunctional materials for food packaging applications. The covered areas include the recent innovations and properties of the polysaccharide-based materials. Emphasis is given to hemicelluloses, marine polysaccharides, and bacterial exopolysaccharides and their potential application in the latest trends of food packaging materials, including edible coatings, intelligent films, and thermo-insulated aerogel packaging.

Prospect of Polysaccharide-Based Materials as Advanced Food Packaging.

Background The perishable nature of fruits and vegetables makes their shelf-life limited. Environmental factors, transportation and preservation conditions through postharvest could decrease the storage time and quality. Therefore, prolonging supply time of fruits and vegetables by safer postharvest treatments direct the preservation methods to edible coatings. Active edible coatings incorporating different types of functional substances can be used as a preservation method to boost strategies in improving quality, safety and shelf-life of fruits and vegetables upon storage. Scope and approach This review attempts to present a complete overview of carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) and pectin as a basis for edible coatings and recent developments related to their application as active coatings for preservation of fruits and vegetables quality. Key findings and conclusion CMC and pectin are two main polysaccharides with great potential in making edible coatings. The CMC- and pectin-based edible coatings are commonly odorless, tasteless, non-toxic, non-allergic, water-soluble, transparent and resistant to oil and fats. CMC and pectin, additionally, could be good carriers for active additives. In this sense, CMC and pectin-based active coatings could provide a great potential both for their protective effect and carrying functional compounds such as antimicrobials, antioxidants, anti-browning agents, texture enhancers and nutraceuticals into their coating matrix to prevent unwanted reactions (e.g., microbial growth, oxidation, enzymatic browning and softening) in horticultural products. Such strategy could inhibit microbial decays and enzymatic or biochemical damages and prevent physical or textural deteriorations in fruits and vegetables during storage.

Applications of carboxymethyl cellulose- and pectin-based active edible coatings in preservation of fruits and vegetables: A review

Starch-based films enriched with nanocellulose-stabilized Pickering emulsions containing different essential oils for possible applications in food packaging

Niloufar Pournasir

Papers

Properties of active starch-based films incorporating a combination of Ag, ZnO and CuO nanoparticles for potential use in food packaging applications