Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
3.3.3
Active Packaging
In recent years, active packaging has been the focus of food and packaging
technologists, with the aim to increase the safety and quality of fresh and processed
foods (Singh et al.
2011b
). Moreover, the consumer's concern on the safety of foods
containing synthetic chemical preservatives and the demand for minimally pro-
cessed foods has led to the development of suitable active packaging techniques.
Active packaging, sometimes known as interactive or intelligent packaging senses
environmental change and alters the package to accommodate to the change (Brody
2005
). Fernández-Álverz (
2000
) defi ned active food packaging as a heterogeneous
concept with a wide range of possibilities to achieve shelf life extension and to
facilitate processing and consumption of food. Active packaging is achieved by
incorporating certain additives such as antimicrobial agents, antioxidants, ethylene
scavengers, oxygen scavengers, humidity scavengers, off-fl avour absorbers, ethanol
emitters etc. An indicative list of active packaging systems is given in Table
3.3
.
Some of the active packaging technologies suitable for minimally processed foods
are discussed in the following sections.
Table 3.3
Minimum growth conditions for selected microorganisms which may be associated
with chilled MA packed foods
Minimum pH
value for growth
Minimum aw
for growth
Minimum growth
temperature (°C)
Type of microorganism
Aeromonas hydrophila
4.0
< 0.96
0.0
Bacillus cereus
4.4
0.91
4.0
Clostridium botulinum
(
proteolytic A
,
B and F
)
4.8
0.94
10.0
Clostridium botulinum
(
non - proteolytic
E
)
4.8
0.97
3.3
Clostridium botulinum
(
non - proteolytic
B and F
)
4.6
0.94
3.3
Clostridium perfringens
5.5
0.93
5.0
Enterobacter aerogenes
4.4
0.94
2.0
Escherichia coli
4.4
0.9
4.0
Lactobacilli
3.8
0.94
4.0
Listeria monocytogenes
4.4
0.92
−0.1
Micrococci
5.6
0.9
4.0
Moulds
<2.0
0.6
<0.0
Pseudomonas species
5.5
0.97
<0.0
Salmonella species
3.8
0.92
4.0
Staphylococcus aureus
4.0
0.83
7.7
Vibrio parahaemolyticus
4.8
0.94
5.0
Yeasts
1-5.0
0.8
−5.0
Yersinia enterocolitica
4.5
0.96
−1.3
