Chapter 1- Application of chitosan in active food packaging

Abstract

Food packaging has an essential role in protecting food products from external factors such as heat, oxidation, and light. Improvements in food packaging studies created active packaging that aims at extending perishable foods’ shelf life, as well as maintaining, or enhancing their quality and safety. Nowadays, researchers’ main focus is being dedicated to the development of bioactive packaging, due to consumers’ concerns toward the packaging based on chemical additives which has hazardous effects on the health and environment. Hence, they started to look for natural alternatives where chitosan is taking precedence among all the numerous bio-based materials, due to its antimicrobial and antioxidant characteristics. This chapter focuses on the application of chitosan in active food packaging. Antioxidant and antimicrobial properties of chitosan-based films combined with free or encapsulated antimicrobials and antioxidant agents have been discussed. In addition, this chapter combines the recent advances in chitosan uses as a promising material in active food packaging.