Practical Guide to Antimicrobial Active Packaging

Description

Antimicrobial packaging systems are those that beneficially interact with food or the surrounding environment, inhibiting or reducing microbial growth in order to improve the quality and extend the shelf life of industrially produced foods. They have undoubtedly become a fully accepted alternative to the direct addition of preservatives to foods and have excellent future prospects. The aim of this book is to develop a working knowledge and understanding of antimicrobial packaging, including a description of the antimicrobial agents most commonly used and their mechanisms of action, the manufacturing methods available to fabricate the active system, the critical parameters which need to be considered to make an effective product and the tools to optimise them, and the various in vitro and in vivo methods for measuring the effectiveness of the antimicrobial system for validation purposes. This book also aims to develop an understanding of why a specific agent is selected for a particular food product, or why a specific polymeric material and manufacturing technology are chosen. The reader will become familiar with the different procedures for improving the activity of the developed packaging solution and ways of testing its efficacy. This will accelerate the formulation of the active packaging concept, reducing development time with respect to the trial-and-error processes common in many published reports. Finally, it will help to identify the best and most cost-effective solutions. This book is intended to be a practical guide to antimicrobial packaging and a quick reference for students and researchers from both academia and industry