Natural antimicrobial technologies in food packaging

Rising food spoilage, food-borne illnesses and environmental sustainability concerns have directly fuelled the world to come up with antimicrobial food packaging technologies. Traditional antimicrobial packaging systems that are mostly based on synthetic chemical agents, have proved to be effective but are progressively constrained by the problems of chemical migration, antimicrobial resistance, environmental persistence and consumer acceptance. This review gives a complete literature description of natural antimicrobial technologies in food packaging and relates it to sources, functionality and methods of incorporation or use. Reportedly, these antimicrobial agents are adjudged to be naturally present in plants, animals and microorganisms. Moreover, they have been implicated to be comprised of essential oils, phenolic compounds, chitosan, enzymes and bacteriocins and their antimicrobial action mechanisms are thoroughly reported. Material engineering techniques such as surface-coating, encapsulation, controlled-release and nanotechnology-based delivery are some of the main methods that are considered for enhancing stability, efficacy and ‍‌shelf-life. Regardless of the tremendous progress, issues of sensory impact, regulatory authorization, scalability and long-term safety are present. So, the present review identifies how natural antimicrobial packaging is developing to become a sustainable approach to food preservation and the future perspectives of the successful industrial implementation.