Incorporation of essential oils (EOs) and nanoparticles (NPs) into active packaging systems in meat and meat products: A review

Novel concepts of smart/intelligent, active and ecofriendly food packaging systems, are getting much more attention these days. There have been new functionalities ascribed to the packaging, mostly derived from recent consumer’s request for organic and cleanlabel –highquality products. This paper throws light on the current advances in antimicrobial active packaging of fresh meat and meatbased products. Among the classes of antimicrobials proposed and tested with remarkable antimicrobial power against microorganisms involved in meat spoilage and meatborne diseases, we focused on plantderived essential oils (EOs) and nanoparticles (NPs) as they were attractive meat protecting agents according to the literature review, we have made. The various technologies and methods for incorporating antimicrobial compounds into the package including embedding for controlled release, immobilization, and layerbylayer deposition, photographting and their feasible approach for active meat packaging are surveyed and scrutinized.