Intelligent packaging to improve shelf life

It is well known that the main purpose of a food packaging system is to preserve the food from external contamination, maintaining its freshness and quality and, if possi- ble, extending its shelf life. As reported by several authors, a traditional food packag- ing has four basic functions, shown in Fig. 1. Traditional packaging has provided all those basic functions together with the tra- ditional methods used to preserve food such as drying, refrigeration, freezing, curing, and sugaring (Lee et al., 2015); however, in recent years, due to the increasing demand for innovative and creative packaging to guarantee food safety, quality, and traceabil- ity, these methods have become insufficient. The requirement for new technologies, integrated in the food packaging, has become even more pressing. This new packaging must extend or maintain the shelf life and quality in a large range of fresh products such as vegetables, fruit, meat, and fish. Food producers, food processors, logistic operators, retailers, and consumers are the subjects of this innovation. But these in- novations, before becoming commercially viable and adopted by all, must respect the regulatory requirements and overcome the possible major expenses for the newly adopted technology. Further, in order to take into account the environmental aspects, food packaging innovation is called to consider a broad range of sustainability issues,