En Seid Mahdi Jafari, Ana Sanches Silva. Releasing Systems in Active Food Packaging. Preparation and Applications, Springer.

Autores/as: M. Fraga-Corral, C. Lourenço-Lopes, C. Jimenez-Lopez, J. Echave, F. Chamorro, M.A. Prieto and J. Simal-Gandara.

The oil industry is continuously evolving by the application of innovative tools and ingredients towards more effective, safe, natural and eco-friendly solutions to satisfy the claims of customers. Currently, packaging involves the use of a great diversity of materials ranging from different types of plastics to very diverse kinds of biodegradable fibers. The current trend is the incorporation of molecules with recognized bioactivities into these materials for their controlled release. The development of active packaging is aimed to prevent oils and fats oxidation/spoilage. Compounds with bioactivities can be freely added into oil/fats, or they can be applied as encapsulated molecules. In fact, this last option has proven to be very promising since the encapsulation has proved to enhance the biological qualities of the compounds. The most relevant bioactivities that the encapsulated molecules can provide to the product are antioxidant or antimicrobial capacities which eventually extend the shelf-life of the product by preventing food spoilage. Therefore, the incorporation of natural biomolecules to oily/fatty products through biodegradable active packaging may represent multiple benefits for human health and reduce the use of petroleum-derivate plastics. In the present work, current issues and solutions to oils and fats preservation through the use of active packaging systems will be reviewed.