ABSTRACT
The current demand for ‘ready to eat’, ‘ready to cook’ and ‘ready to use’ food has strikingly increased with the increased necessity of the manufacturers to produce minimally processed food. One of the main issues in food processing is protection against food-borne diseases which still constitute a global problem of public health (Morris, 2011; Carbone et al., 2016). New technologies on food packaging are improving as a result of changing consumer demands or industrial production trends. As a result, mildly preserved, fresh, tasty and convenient food products with prolonged shelf-life and controlled quality can be defined as main consumer demands or industrial production trends. Additionally, changes in consumer lifestyles and retailing applications pose the main challenge to the food-packaging industry. Thus, these changes act as the driving force for the development of new packaging concepts which extend shelf-life while maintaining and monitoring food safety and quality (Dainelli et al., 2008). Innovations in packaging were up to now limited mainly to small changes in packaging materials which could be defined as passive packaging systems to meet the marketing demands in short term. New concepts of smart and intelligent packaging are due to play an increasingly important role by offering innovative solutions to extending the shelf-life or maintain, improve or monitor food quality and safety (Gontard, 2000). New concepts like ethanol emitters (such as for bakery products), ethylene absorbers (such as for climacteric fruits), carbon dioxide emitters/absorbers, time/temperature and oxygen indicators, chemical sensors and biosensors (freshness, pathogen, leakage, carbon dioxide, oxygen, pH, time and temperature), etc., have been developed to maintain and monitor food quality and safety of food from producers to consumers (Rooney, 2005; Kuswandi et al., 2011; 66 Dobrucka and Cierpiszewski, 2014). Thus, application and usage of smart and intelligent packaging can extend the shelf-life of food or improve its organoleptic properties while preventing food losses (Dobrucka and Cierpiszewski, 2014).
