The developments and trends of electrospinning active food packaging: A review and bibliometrics analysis

Electrospinning is a straightforward and versatile technique to design nano/micro fibers with high porosity, large surface-to-volume ratio, outstanding tunability and flexibility. Substantial advances in developing electrospun active food packaging have been made in recent years, and many publications are emerging. However, there is a lack of comprehensive and intuitive analysis in respect to the mostly critical research topics and development trends of electrospinning active food packaging. In this study, 350 articles about “electrospinning active food packaging” were collected from the Web of Science Core Collection database during 2007–2021. The key words, highly co-cited references and top research aspects in this subject were categorized and evaluated using Citespace and the Scientometrics method. The institution and co-cited references analysis indicated that IATA-CSIC has contributed the most publications in this field. The cluster analysis demonstrates that the current electrospun active packaging focuses on using biodegradable polymers, such as starch, PHBV and PLA, and encapsulating bioactive compounds, especially curcumin and nisin. The barrier properties of packaging materials are also the research hotspot. The future trends are inclined to seeking other more effective bioactive compounds, and improving their encapsulation efficiency in the biodegradable polymer matrix. The challenges and future research focus of electrospinning active packaging were illustrated in the end. This work could assist the researchers tracking the latest hotspots, current challenges, as well as the future trends of electrospinning active food packaging.