Trends over the last 25 years and future research into smart packaging for food: A review

The review study intends to investigate global contributions, analyze current trends in smart packaging, and project the future of this area. A bibliometric analysis was undertaken to analyze the application of smart packaging comprehensively, objectively, and holistically. It was found that India and the United States have produced the most articles in the field of smart packaging applications for food, accounting for 54 and 53 documents, respectively, among all published papers in the last 25 years. The number of documents related to smart packaging in food products was found to increase every year, with an exponential growth rate of 0.20 yr−1 from 1997 to 2022. Based on the results of a period-based keyword analysis, it was determined that the bioactive compounds, natural pigments, and biodegradable applications in food packaging hold great promise to be applied in food packaging. These findings indicate that smart packaging is becoming increasingly popular as a sustainable and environmentally friendly food packaging solution.