Future of Food Packaging: Intelligent Packaging

The new dimensions of food packaging are influenced by consumer preferences for food safety, innovations, and convenience. In an era of technological advances, food packaging has evolved into smart packaging. Both active and intelligent food packaging as an important component of smart packaging provides the customers with an optimum food product experience. Active food packaging aims at improving the shelf-life of the product by addition of certain components into the package. While intelligent packaging helps the food product to navigate the product cycle until it reaches the consumer. Intelligent food packaging includes tools that help during the product cycle, for example, indicators, RFID tag, barcode labels, and biosensors. A few of the different types of indicators used in intelligent food packaging include time-temperature indicators, leak indicators, freshness indicators, gas indicators, and pH indicators. Advantages of intelligent food packaging include monitoring the internal environment of the package, monitoring the logistics of the product, protection from theft, improving pathogen detection, increased product value, reduction in food wastage while extending the shelf life and providing convenience to the consumer while expanding market. The application of nanotechnology along with further research can ensure sustainable and commercially viable consumer accepted intelligent food packaging.