Antioxidant packaging films: application for sustainable food protection

Abstract

Antioxidant packaging films (APFs) have emerged as a transformative result in food preservation, offering biodegradability, cost-effectiveness, and the ability to incorporate bioactive compounds. These films mitigate food spoilage by preventing oxidation and inhibiting enzymatic and non-enzymatic browning, while naturally derived antioxidants enhance their functionality with low toxicity, high nutritional value, and effective antimicrobial and antioxidant properties. Recent advances demonstrate that integrating natural antioxidants, such as polyphenols and flavonoids, significantly improves total phenolic content, free radical scavenging, and overall antioxidant activity of APFs. These films also exhibit great light and moisture barrier properties, mechanical strength, and compatibility with intelligent/active packaging systems. This review investigated novel raw materials, advanced manufacturing techniques, and innovative encapsulation methods for incorporating antioxidants into APFs, highlighting their diverse applications in extending shelf life and ensuring food safety across the food industry, while uniquely addressing critical gaps in scalable, eco-friendly food packaging through cutting-edge developments in sustainable raw materials and enhanced antioxidant delivery for improved film performance.

Keywords: Active packaging; Bioactive compounds; Oxidation; Radical scavenging; Shelf life.

Graphical abstract

Fig. 1

a) Ground beef meat packaging with two cellulose based systems (Barzan et al., 2024), Elsevier, Open access, b) Photographs and TBARS results of chicken jerky packaged in cassia gum/PTE films during 9 days of storage (Wei et al., 2024), MDPI, Open access and c) Visual image of chilled meat packed with chitosan-starch/Portulaca oleracea extract film after 6 days storage, and TBARS results. Adapted from Ref (Fan et al., 2023). with license number 6117471405125.

Fig. 2

Dairy products: a) visual image of Havarti cheese with slice separator film and TBARS results. Adapted from Ref. (Flórez et al., 2023), with license number 6117450940445, and b) Storage results for fruit at different times for various treatments (a: 0, b: 2 weeks, c: 4 weeks; C: unpacked, B: packed with film A, T: packed with film A1) (Rehim et al., 2023), Nature, Open access. Bakery products: a) Actual view of white bread slices packed with SPI films (Hosseiniyeh et al., 2024), Wiley, Open access, and b) visual images of wheat bread loaf cross-sections coated with (a) zein and (b) zein-sunflower oil (25 %) coatings. Adapted from Ref (Mouzakitis et al., 2022). with license number 6117460527617.

Fig. 3

a) Storage results for strawberries at different times (a: 0; b: 4; c: 8, d: 12, and e: 16 day) for various treatments (left to right, control group, glycerol loquat and sorbitol loquat films) Adapted from Ref (Costa et al., 2023). with license number 6117460776901, b) Storage results for bananas at different times (7 day) for various PFs. Adapted from Ref (Yang et al., 2024). with license number 6117461066254, and c) visual appearance of the fresh-cut lettuce packaged in 80:20 PL A:Ecoflex® + 0.5 % LCNF. Adapted from Ref (Bascón-Villegas et al., 2022). with license number 6117470067201.

Fig. 4

a) The visual properties of peanut butter with PE, S20P80, and S20P80–3 %PG films and PG migration results. Adapted from Ref (Gao et al., 2024). with license number 6117470419870, b) Arrangement of oil sample bottle circles in the incubator relative to the fluorescent lamp's position and degree of oxidation of oil results (Jakubowska et al., 2023), Elsevier, Open access, c) Heat-sealed pouches with soybean oil (a) SG and (b) SG/Curcumin 0.20 films (c) dissolution test for the SG/Cur 0.20 pouches of soybean oil. Adapted from Ref (Dong et al., 2023). with license number 6117470662597, d) Pouches filled with olive oil: (A) chitosan/gelatin film; (B) chitosan/gelatin with 0.5 % gallic acid, and (C) chitosan/gelatin with 2.0 % gallic acid. Adapted from Ref (Kurek et al., 2024). with license number 6117470823752, e) visual photo of roasted peanuts packaged in sachets made from GG/CMC-based film containing halloysite nanotube and different concertation of LSWE. Adapted from Ref (Deshmukh et al., 2022). with license number 6117470957804, and f) Visual image of walnut packed with active film (a, c) and control film (b, d), (upper row; 0 day, lower row; 8 days). Adapted from Ref (Kumar et al., 2024). with license number 6117471108825.