Critical review of controlled release packaging to improve food safety and quality

ABSTRACT

Controlled release packaging (CRP) is an innovative technology that uses the package to release active compounds in a controlled manner to improve safety and quality for a wide range of food products during storage. This paper provides a critical review of the uniqueness, design considerations, and research gaps of CRP, with a focus on the kinetics and mechanism of active compounds releasing from the package. Literature data and practical examples are presented to illustrate how CRP controls what active compounds to release, when and how to release, how much and how fast to release, in order to improve food safety and quality.

KEYWORDS:

• Controlled release packaging
• antimicrobial packaging
• antioxidant packaging
• active packaging
• target release rate

Acknowledgment

We thank Professor Dong Sun Lee and Dr. Shiowshuh Sheen for their valuable comments to improve this paper.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by National Research Initiative Grant 2006-35503-17568 from the USDA Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service Program on Improving Food Quality and Value. It was also partly supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (21407090) and the International Cooperation Program of Key Professors by QuFu Normal University.